Verloskundige Amstelveen (Buitenveldert) - Arent Janszoon Ernststraat 112

Deskundige en ervaren verloskundigen! Ik kwam vaak op locatie Kamillelaan, en dat is een prettige, lichte praktijkruimte. Ze zijn goed bereikbaar via spoed 06. Er wordt met je meegedacht en er is ruimte voor eigen invulling van de zwangerschap/bevalling. Ook niet onbelangrijk: de verloskundigen zijn persoonlijk en stralen vertrouwen in je uit. Kortom: vijf sterren!

Five stars, since my wife and baby got through without serious injury, and I got a first class education in dominance games - particularly effective because so totally unexpected! The negatives: 1. We were sent a substitute midwife - not one of the five staff members we had met. She was also a bit strung out, but we continued to hospital with her. Once there, she began to push a point of view contrary to our birth plan. Ultimately I asked her to leave. She said no... i had to leave the room to find a nurse to get her out... Perhaps thirty minutes later, Astrid arrived... 2. Astrid pushed my wife to empty her bladder with a catheter. As a husband, I was not informed that a catheter was standard procedure. My wife had been informed, but neither of us knew that we would be pressured to comply; or that I would provoke an argument by asking to give my wife a few minutes (!) to try to empty the bladder with natural movements. 3. My wife entered the birth pool. We were just at that moment informed that we had no waterproof heart-rate monitor in the room! This is a point to watch: Is it the Amstelland hospital that keeps a birthing pool without a waterproof heart monitor? Or was there some other reason we couldn't use one? In the moment, I was too busy fending off Astrid to think clearly enough to ask. 4. My wife began to have stronger contractions, and felt an urge to push. This provoked an argument with Astrid, who was in favour of pushing, and us, who thought we had submitted a plan for a natural birth - without pushing. We had studied this issue, and asked to be allowed as far as possible a relaxed birth. And Astrid did stop insisting on pushing during contractions. I think my wife was surprised by the intensity of the urge to push, but she seemed to manage to breath through it, and not to "push" the baby out. I was upset to be having yet another surprise debate, and now about the most important decision in our birth plan. 5. Soon after this, Astrid said the baby's head would crown on the next contraction. To me it looked like terribly deformed face. I held my tongue, but I was shocked by this image. I heard her say that the head would go back, but then it will come again completely on the next contraction. And this too happened, as predicted, and I saw a perfect beautiful baby face. Then, instantly, I heard a new voice, calm, authoritative: "Now, Hsiao, when I say push, I want you to Push." Myself was not prepared to stop what happened. Before I could react, and instantly Astrid finished speaking, she said PUSH, drove her hands, into my wife's body, grabbed my baby's shoulders, twisted, and YANKED. My wife was now bleeding continually. A doctor was called, an IV, and a second shot of oxytocin. 6. I was so stunned by all of this, and then by the bleeding that ensued, that Astrid at some point managed a couple of pulls on the umbilical cord before I could believe my eyes and stop her. And the positives: 1. The baby was born healthy, with no operation, and the mother only suffered a small cut. So on the whole this was a very happy outcome for us. Credit where credit is due... 2. Astrid quickly found the cut and stitched it. I feel grateful that she saved my wife from death, and only some question remains to wonder what caused the bleeding. I think it's a known fact that the most difficult part of the birth, and what usually tears the perineal muscles, is the passage of the baby's head through the birth canal. Exactly this we had practiced to avoid, and Yofiël's head emerged with only spots of blood. Subsequently, another midwife confirmed the cut was NOT to the perineal muscle. 3. They have several information evenings, which served as a useful starting point for our research into natural birth. 4. They have a very convenient satellite office by the Gelderlandplein shopping mall. 5. I learned a priceless lesson in Establishment Power. Indelibly imprinted on my mind is the way experienced professionals can lull you into a false sense of security and then do with you what suits them.