Obstetrics and Gynecology Needs Palliative Care

by Nathan Riley " Can you all, please, just leave us alone? "One particular experience with the death of a newborn stands out in my mind. Moments after birth the baby was breathless, and the neonatology team could not intubate. All of the kingdom ’s pediatric surgeons and other specialists rushed to labor and delivery to no avail. The baby was born with a four centimeter gap in his trachea, an irreparable condition. The mother sat there, holding her dying baby as he took his last breaths while physicians, nurses, and residents were busy as usual. Click-clacking away on computers. Adjusting blankets. Asking questions. Rearranging surgical instruments. This bustle continued until she repeated herself a little more forcefully: “LEAVE US ALONE!”This experience illustrates how, in a mother ’s moment of suffering, a room full of prolific fixers, doers and problem-solvers came up empty-handed. While the loss of a newborn is a relatively rare occurrence, suffering - physical, emotional, psychosocial, or spiritual - is common in the world of women’s health. Likewise, if our only goal on labor and delivery is “healthy baby and healthy mom,” we are without recourse when the normal hazards of being human – many of which are completely out of our control - befall us.As an obstetrician and palliative medicine specialist, I often wonder how we might approach these challenging scenarios differently. My palliative medicine training taught me that not every problem can - o...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: gynecology obstetrics palliative care pediatrics prenatal riley Source Type: blogs