Posted on 02/06/2010 7:50:37 PM PST by myknowledge
A Welsh mother has been jailed after she bit a midwife who was helping to deliver her baby.
Leanne Pennington, 26, was sentenced to 20 weeks in jail after sinking her teeth into the arm of 41-year-old midwife Carolyn Burden during the final stages of labour at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil last May, news website southwales.co.uk reports.
Mrs Burden, herself a mother of four, went back to help deliver the baby after receiving first aid treatment.
Pennington, classified a "high risk patient", admitted to the assault which left Mrs Burden with a swollen and bruised arm.
"It was completely out of the blue," Mrs Burden told southwales.co.uk.
"I was taking care of the woman in labour and she bit me.
Mrs Burden was forced to undergo six months of HIV and hepatitis tests, which turned out negative.
The midwife has since returned to work, but is still troubled by the incident, saying it made her feel "very vulnerable".
Not if the patient herself has the virus at undetectable levels.
A test of both patient and the victim would be the best way to guarantee accuracy.
That's how you got in that situation in the first place!
You’re right, but I did with a lot more grace.
My original posting stands.
Sorry that I wasn’t clear. I agree. But Mom got the jail time.
Considering everything, the midwife should just be thankful she didn’t bite her arm off.
hubby says that I tried to bite him when giving birth to our first child. Something about the urge to push adn bear down.....I don’t know.
I'll bet if they did you'd bite them, too.
After my 26 1/2 hours of labor and 2 1/2 of hard contractions, if someone had gotten near my mouth, I probably would have bitten her too.
I would say the midwife was inexperienced with women in labor. I could have easily bitten through the bed rails.
jailing the mother? That is outrageous.
I apparently slugged the nurse who was helping me, I had no idea until later...Weird things happen while giving birth.
Actually I was too busy pushing to bite. I just wanted it over with. But during my second labor, the woman across the hall kept saying “NeveragainNeveragainNeveragain”, called her husband dirty names and threw things. She kept the nurses busy.
If they’re not going to have an epidermal they need a leather strap to bite on.
(ducking! I was there for both mine being launched into the world)
It is a good thing both of my arms were restrained on the delivery table for I seriously considered riping my husband’s nads off his body—all three times.
The sad truth is if I could have moved my arms, I would have tried. Well, sad for him. I find it funny. :-)
Assuming there is nothing more to the story, the midwife made herself vulnerable. Wonder if the midwife delivered the baby and then went to press charges?
Rather than jail the mother, the midwife needs to be punished for stupidity.
With our first, my wife bit me on the shoulder—she was standing and leaning against me while pushing through a contraction. It would be interesting to know if it was a medicated or unmedicated child birth—DW is very much into natural childbirth (we have had four), which may have some drawbacks but certainly draws stares of admiration//questioning of sanity from many.
When medicine is socialized, practitioners are demigods.
And, apparently, you get a midwife instead of a physician.
"My wife stood up in the stirrups, grabbed my bottom lip and said "I want morphine!" I said "But, dear " [vigorously breathing]. She said "You shut up! YOU did this to me!" And on the next contraction she told everybody in the delivery room that my parents were never married." - Bill Cosby
Yes, the concept of midwives isn’t scary at all.
We all have our own ways of dealing with drama. My first child was born 30 minutes after I entered the hospital. I have had three kids and never yelled nor bit anyone.
My daughter, married to an ER Physican, delivered her child within 28 minutes of arriving at the hospital.
It’s all in your mind. Not your teeth. No drama=no trauma.
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