Glorious British health care system lets father know joy of delivering his own child
posted at 7:05 pm on October 17, 2007 by Allahpundit
Send to a Friend |
printer-friendly
This could actually become a selling point for HillaryCare. More public knowledge about health and wellness is all to the good, no? Well, think how much you’ll gain by pulling your own teeth or pitching in when your baby is crowning.
I’m all for it — provided we either get to write our own prescriptions or a whole lot of stuff goes over the counter. Anything to dance with sweet lady Vicodin again. Anything…
A father had to deliver his own baby after his wife was twice turned away from an NHS hospital - because it was too full…
The couple dashed to their local maternity hospital at 7am when Elizabeth, 24, started having strong contractions.
But they were amazed to be told: “Sorry, we are full. Come back later.” The pair went home after being reassured the baby would not arrive “for hours”.
When Elizabeth’s contractions became more frequent they returned to the maternity unit at 10am - but were sent home again from the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend, near Cardiff…
Paramedics arrived as the baby’s head was coming out - but [the husband] was doing such a good job they supervised him until baby Emily was born at 11am.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
My eyes must be getting tired. Had to do a double-take because I thought this was going to be a story about the Addams family.
Welcome to life Emily! Good goin, Mr. Jones, now marry the kids’ mom fer cryin’ out loud.
RushBaby on October 17, 2007 at 7:09 PM
HILLNET EVIL REDISTRIBUTION SUPERCOMPUTER (HERS):
Status Report: Citizen #457,867 just pushed out of Citizen #301,230. Preparing Annual Rationing sheet. Insufficient funds. Recommendation: Increase taxes and streamline abortions queue, partial-birth preferable for immediate results.
BKennedy on October 17, 2007 at 7:10 PM
I think if we ever have hillarycare you will see a large amount of private hospitals pop up. Instead of paying monthly into health insurance people will start paying monthy for private healthcare in these places
offroadaz on October 17, 2007 at 7:18 PM
I hope that baby’s okay - the photo isn’t very reassuring.
Dork B. on October 17, 2007 at 7:20 PM
Well, AP, what shoud they have done? They didn’t have time to fly them to the U.S. for the birth like we do in Canada.
andycanuck on October 17, 2007 at 7:20 PM
Damn you defunct Concord program (shakes fist)!
Editor on October 17, 2007 at 7:23 PM
Heh. My wife is due in two weeks, home birth. I’m signed up to catch our new wee one.
BTW, AP, some would argue the wife “delivered” the baby and deserves a bit more of the credit, headline-wise, than poor dad.
TexasDan on October 17, 2007 at 7:28 PM
I think I’d feel rather inadequate if I saw a woman giving birth. Just me. Just sayin.
lorien1973 on October 17, 2007 at 7:31 PM
As if you’ll have a choice.
JammieWearingFool on October 17, 2007 at 7:33 PM
meh. let’s hope I’m more adept at catching babies than managing my tags.
TexasDan on October 17, 2007 at 7:34 PM
You ever caught a football, lorien? Then you’re more than adequate! She’s doing 99.9% of the work.
jdpaz on October 17, 2007 at 7:35 PM
Citizen #301,230 JUST CONFISCATED FOR UNAUTHORIZED BIRTH AND UNFUNDED NATIVITY.
ronsfi on October 17, 2007 at 7:36 PM
Har! Another great caption.
petefrt on October 17, 2007 at 7:38 PM
My dad delivered all three of us (my big sister, me, and my little brother).
At the time, they were living in the Rockies and the nearest hospital was 40 miles away. The options were to get a hotel room in town near the due date or make plans to have the child at home. My parents also had objections to some chemicals that (at the time, at least) were standard to be placed in the newborn’s eyes to prevent blindness from STDs….since my parents knew they didn’t have STDs, they didn’t see the point of the chemicals, but it was required at the time.
Long story short, we were all delivered safely and my dad was prepared for any issues (and a few did come up). They saved a lot of money and I have a cool story to tell anytime I go somewhere and they do one of those icebreakers like, “Tell us one interesting thing about yourself.”
The best part is that, even though we lived in a highly fertile area (lots of large Mormon families) my sister (who is 2.5 years older than me) and I have social security numbers that are only 130 slots away from each other (which means there were only 130 kids born in that county between her birth and mine).
Nowadays, with doctors handing out c-sections like candy in order to avoid any potential lawsuits, homebirth just might be the way to go regardless of how near a hospital you live.
JadeNYU on October 17, 2007 at 7:41 PM
Sick-doh!
Opinionnation on October 17, 2007 at 7:49 PM
Yep, and under Hillary care we will learn to deliver our own children and pull our own teeth. Maybe Mexico will still have health care services, I sure hope so.
Maxx on October 17, 2007 at 7:50 PM
JadeNYU, I too (along with my youngest sister) was born at home. Apparently I interrupted breakfast, a good start as I was certainly the rabble-rouser amongst us kids. The idea of home birth always scared me, as I figured a hospital would have more staff/equipment to handle complications. Glad to hear your dad was able to responsibly prepare and take care of everything.
Bryce on October 17, 2007 at 7:51 PM
It would be cool if this family demanded a tax reimbursement for the value of the service.
Dork B. on October 17, 2007 at 7:57 PM
And just think, every six months he can do a routine teeth cleaning on the kid.
TheSitRep on October 17, 2007 at 8:04 PM
And just think, every six months he can do a routine teeth cleaning on the kid.
TheSitRep on October 17, 2007 at 8:04 PM
Both my daughters were born at home, with a midwife attending. No drugs, no shots, no nuthin’. At the time we made the decision to do so, it was mostly because it sounded like a more relaxing experience than the typical hospital ordeal, and it was indeed a wonderful way to bring a new life into the world. Since then, however, as wifey and I hear more and more women describe their experience at hospitals, we’ve come to appreciate just what all we escaped. These days, docs just can’t let things happen naturally; apparently they believe children can’t be born safely without hooking up fifteen different monitors, and injecting fifteen different drugs. C-sections are almost routine because of slimy lawyers like Silky Pony and the ass-covering docs that are the direct result. Same with episotomies, which makes me grimace even to think about.
Yes, I’m glad we have highly trained doctors for true emergencies, but people shouldn’t be using doctors for “health care.” God gave us brains for a reason, and in this glorious age of Google, there’s no excuse for being ignorant, and no reason to blindly trust your doc on anything.
Anyway, in rationed systems like Britain and Canada, the nonsense at hospitals must be ten times worse, which is hard to imagine.
Splashman on October 17, 2007 at 8:10 PM
That’s not quite what I was referring to. :P
lorien1973 on October 17, 2007 at 8:12 PM
This thread went wrong. The point is that nobody knows when the real emergency will hit. This guy was lucky,some of you were. Not everyone is. Poor quality and access issues plague state health plans. Ask a municipal worker how much he/she likes gov’t insurance where the choice of doctors is few, reimbursements are low, and the face time is non-existent.
JiangxiDad on October 17, 2007 at 8:31 PM
Wont this be just wonderful? Ladies poppin kids out on the streets, kids bleeding out ’til mom figures out how to tie a knot in the thread woven onto the little ones cheek, dads setting leg splints with baseball bats and duct tape on the diamond….just wonderful.
.
Oh and AP, as for that ‘Vickie’? She’s nothing but a high maintenance, grave robbin’, gold digger wannabe without a personality of her own.
You’re better off with an iphone and a few KP posters on yer wall.
shooter on October 17, 2007 at 9:00 PM
That will not be allowed, the ruling class will have their own quality hospital. The masses will be stuck with junk.
allrsn on October 17, 2007 at 9:03 PM
It’s a good thing there were no complications. Otherwise, the stinking lawyers would get involved. Who knows, they still might get involved.
bloggless on October 17, 2007 at 9:24 PM
You are 100% correct, Dad, and I started it. I winced when I saw my comment that I so flippantly posted, and have been worrying about it ever since. What happened to this family, being turned away from the hospital, seems so unbelievable…and yet, could be a part of our lives in, oh, say, 2009.
For this child, at least some good-natured paramedics showed up. For their next child, maybe even that is gone.
Emily’s country is rocketing into the abyss, and over here in our country, and calculating pit viper and her criminal cabal is twitching to tip us in as well.
RushBaby on October 17, 2007 at 9:50 PM
Nice. I see that developing into a nice inside joke during the general.
BadgerHawk on October 17, 2007 at 10:38 PM
DIY Pacemakers next?
Insert wire Q into chest cavity R and push Q into ventricle T with left hand Y while adjusting pulse rate S on device M with right hand X.
Sounds simple.
profitsbeard on October 17, 2007 at 11:41 PM
Careful. Ya dance too long and she turns mean and won’t let you stop.
infidel4life on October 18, 2007 at 1:16 AM
I have no problem with people delivering kids at home. I am troubled by the prspect of Sociaized Medicine. The biggest problem is that there are a great deal of moonbat leftists out the on the net who staple their dreams on socialzed medicine. When you quote the CATO report to them they shriek about how CATO took contributions from pharm. companies so the report is tainted. Pathetic. They really want big government to manage your life. Can anyone say “Logan’s Run”?
Black Adam on October 18, 2007 at 1:38 AM
Yep, support that poor baby’s neck.
If you want to look at so-called socialized medicine that works fairly well, at least compared to the UK system, look at Denmark’s. No, it’s not perfect but having experienced both the US and the danish system, I prefer the danish. I’ll agree the waiting lists aren’t fun but in my family’s case, I have two sons with special needs and I couldn’t afford the decent care we get here in DK if we lived in the states. Same goes for their fantastic schools.
For birth situations, there are midwives at the hospital and the doctors only get involved in emergencies. Home birth is also an option but the hospital situation was quite good. The doctors, midwives and nurses all share a professional respect and courtesy I don’t really remember seeing in the states. It’s a nice change.
It’s not as scary as some think. There are also private hospitals here, so of course, those who can pay, will go there if they choose.
yggdrasil on October 18, 2007 at 6:34 AM
Vote for national health care, and everything will be perfect!
OK, well, maybe not everything.
DrSteve on October 18, 2007 at 8:30 AM
I have no problem with people delivering kids at home.
You should go take one of those “childbirth preparation” classes that most local hospitals give for expectant parents. They’ll tell you enough horror stories that you’ll take home birth right off the table.
Did this hospital know, when they turned them away, that the umbilical cord wasn’t wrapped around the baby’s neck, as sometimes happens? Nope. In short, these parents got lucky. Doesn’t always work out that way, which is why infant mortality in Third World countries is so high.
Lehuster on October 18, 2007 at 8:56 AM
Lehuster on October 18, 2007 at 8:56 AM
You should take your childbirth prep scare class with a big helping of salt.
Since when is childbirth a medical emergency? I’m the last guy to stand up for socialized medicine, but this thread did not “go wrong”. What’s wrong with healthcare in this country, and one of the roots of healthcare entitlement, is the aura of superiority and fear that doctors have instilled in our society re: our own precious health.
15k to have a baby. That’s whats wrong with healthcare.
TexasDan on October 18, 2007 at 9:45 AM
I’m already seeing private emergency clinics cropping up in the Houston area. They only accept private insurance, no medicade, medicare etc. Cash or insurance. The wait time is next to nothing on a Saturday night, as I can attest to having had to take one of the kiddos there recently. Not an illegal in the place either!
I’ll prostitute my self to pay for private insurance if I have to choose between that or hillary care.
Pulchritudinous Patriot on October 18, 2007 at 9:48 AM
This guy should team up with the self-taught dentist (14 extractions)and take their show on the road.
“Have Pliers and Hot Towels, will travel”.
RMR on October 18, 2007 at 10:52 AM
LOL!
CliffHanger on October 18, 2007 at 11:52 AM
There ARE advantages from being a former paramedic… but I really am glad I didn’t have to deliver any of my own six children. If I had, my wife would have blamed everything they ever did wrong on me…
Jonas Parker on October 18, 2007 at 2:53 PM