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".
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.
I absolutely hate double posts. Once again, I apologize. Let’s hope it doesn’t appear twice.
Yes you will. I have seen reports of a woman who had a baby on the sidewalk after an ambulance was refused and of babies born in stairwells and hallways at crowded hospitals.
Socialist medicine is NOT good.
Oh and few semi-private rooms, they can have wards of 50 or so patients. Good thing H1N1 was a scam, imagine how that could spread from patient to patient.
Yeah, that sort of blew over, didn't it? Eclipsed by more pressing political disasters for the Powers.
this is just more anti-birther propaganda.
that's my thought... or the biter...
Okay folks, simmer down.
First of all, midwives are actually optimal for normal deliveries: one of my wife’s three were with a midwife and as far as care, she far outshone both the first ob-gyn who wanted to get home early and gave her pitocin to speed things up or even the female ob-gyn who assisted with the third. So no, having midwives assist in the delivery of babies is not another mark against socialized medicine—actually the fact that it’s hard to impossible for midwives to practice in most states is a blot against our trial-lawyer-and-physicians-guild-monopoly pseudo-free-market approach to medicine.
Part of the reason is that midwives don’t medicalize the normal process of childbirth and act as if they’re treating a disease: they make a point of caring for the mother as well as delivering the baby.
Doubtless the midwife in the report was trying to do something soothing or moving the mother in a helpful way (believe it or not they generally know ergonomic tricks for aiding in labor—a variety of postures besides the lying down so gravity isn’t helping that physicians favor), when a particularly nasty contraction hit and the mother bit her.
Quite frankly I regard this as another example of the law being an ass: considering a mother in labor lashing out in any way as assault is, well, asinine.
I’ve given birth to four babies- the last by midwife. Out of those four births, the only one that I would *almost* repeat is the fourth. The third OB-GYN should have been just about sued for malpractice, as my daughter’s nose was broken (my regular doctor who was on vacation said it was lucky her shoulder wasn’t separated or worse), and my pelvis was separated, due to her stupid decisions and God complex.
Who knows about the midwives in the UK, but I loved mine, and if God ever thought to be funny and give us a 5th child, I would go back to a midwife without a thought.
Good post. Same here.
I bit the hubby when when I gave birth. He had been standing near my head, holding my hand and watching the doctor...I was hurting and at some point I ended up turning my head towards him and clamping down on his arm. They also say I asked them to get a gun and put me out of my misery. Kiddo got hung up for a few hours and it hurt!
Sounds like that Lamaze "discomfort, not pain" crap they fed me with the first pregnancy. :-)
20 weeks? These people are getting as bad as Nigeria, which wanted to stone a woman to death for being raped and giving birth. I really hope that one day in the far future such backwardness not tolerated on this planet.
Maybe, but in the UK, there is no intended discrimination against HIV-infected people.
20 weeks? Everything’s wrong with today’s Brit society.
Not-A-Ping....
B^)
“My first child was born 30 minutes after I entered the hospital.”
Lucky you. Just to put it in perspective my first was 23 hrs, and the second was 10 hrs which is quite a while to be going through that and it’s not out of the ordinary.
While there isn’t a time frame included in the article, the mom-to-be seems to have been going through it for > 30 min since the midwife could go be treated for the bite and then be back to finish her job. It also doesn’t say whether the mom was medicated, or other details about her care.
To me, jail seems to be rather extreme as the hazards of dealing with women having babies seems like a given. But I guess that when your’re in a socialized medicine environment, the care really isn’t about the patient, but rather attending to a piece of meat.
I have taken care of a few “high risk” labor patients of this type in my day - and I have been bitten. A related article does say that the young woman admitted to the assault and other charges. The midwife was tested to see if she had contracted diseases the patient had or was likely to have given her “risk” status, a long and frightening wait. Been there too, after a needle stick, when the patient, who had a drug history, refused consent to be tested for hepatitis or HIV. Instead of trashing the midwife you should be impressed that she had the professionalism and/or compassion to go back and continue to give care to a patient who had assaulted her.
I’ve given birth 8 times.
During the course of many hours of labor - dealing with equipment - monitors - changing positions - walking around- giving me ice chips - helping me change positions - there was plenty of opportunity to chomp on her if that’s what I wanted to do :)
see post #59
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