So I asked a family member who is a qualified, practicing physician what they would make of someone who presented in early labour, had a degree of calcified placenta, balked at induction against advice, tried to knock self out during labour, finally opted for epidural, and also needed an episiotomy, forceps and vacuum (which she said failed), with a baby at the small end of normal.
Their answer nearly made me snort tea out of my nose:
“Umm, so we’re talking about a substance user? The erratic behaviour is consistent with the kind of poor maternal stamina we see in people who are, let’s just say chemically compromised.” … They thought she sounded like she was in drug induced psychosis! THAT’S HOW CRAZY YOU LOOK TO THE REAL WORLD SARAH.
HA! When I explained more they said it sounded as though Sarah had likely not prepared herself for labour and was having a total meltdown - which we all know to be true, on both counts.
She also asked if she was obese, because it’s apparently more common to need the trifecta that is vbac, forceps and episiotomy in mothers that are somehow physically compromised (poor fitness/endurance; excess weight; medically compromised etc.). That combined with the resistance to intervention, then eventual epidural gave the impression (to my family member) that she was overall a very difficult and ill-prepared patient, who probably made the experience more challenging than it needed to be, for her and her treatment team.
I am cackling