So, just over six months ago my daughter was born. Due to some unforeseen complication, it was an emergency c-section. She is, thankfully, doing fine but, one strange thing has stuck in my mind. When they moved me to the room where it all went down, there were loads of medical personnel. Off to the side I remember a bunch of people, well, for lack of a better term, playing paddy-cake? Now, of course, at the time, it was all so fast, and I wasn’t really in a state to say, “Hey, what’s all that about!?”. I am hopeful that someone can tell me about it now. It is possible that I dreamed or imagined this, I guess, but I’m pretty sure it really happened. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful replies.
The odds of getting a factual response to a possibly imagined game of paddy cake among medical personnel are pretty small. That said, I look forward to the jokes sure to follow and fully support this thread.
Since you want to know “what it’s all about,” I’m inclined to think they were doing the Hokey Pokey.
Frankly, when I had my children, there could have been pole dancers and the US Marine marching band in the delivery room, for all I cared. As long as I wouldn’t have been asked to participate…
~VOW
When I was in the hospital, I was on a number of pain medications and I had some pretty wild hallucinations.
For the actual sing-a-long.-Having My Baby-Paul Anka
Although, “take the right foot out, put the right foot in, take the right foot out, and then shake it all about” is probably not the best set of instructions for performing a c-section.
Ah, well, maybe someone with more experience could answer. I’ll point out, guys, that I don’t think women in labor typically have any type of pain medicine that is likely to cause hallucinations. Also, it is true that I was focused on the doctor speaking to me, but when you enter a room and people are clapping and singing its something you notice. But, again, thank you for your thoughtful replies. or not.
I happened to be the one laboring, and I had had NOTHING (except a “stern talking to” by one of the L&D nurses, sheesh).
All I wanted was to get the KID out of me. Marching band, blast off of the space shuttle, a class of fifth graders on a field trip, anything else in the delivery room wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest.
~VOW
I’d like to hear from someone who’s accustomed to taking part in surgery here, but could they have been going over a pre-surgical checklist? That wouldn’t involve singing or clapping, but it might include some ritualized hand movements and what would sound like chanting.
Alternatively, perhaps your hospital staff wanted to cheer you on!
Probably a pair of OR techs or nurses preparing surgical drapes/equipment for the procedure. Getting them folded/unfolded and set up most efficiently is a wondrous process to observe, when done by a well-trained team. it rivals synchronized swimming for its skill and artistry, but could be mistaken for patty-cake by those not in the know.
I’ve observed it many times, back in my baby-cotching days.
Seriously.
OK, serious answer. Perhaps they were congratulating/celebrating with another mother who had just given birth?
Yes, thank you. Probably they weren’t actually singing, and honestly, I (kind of, not really) hope they don’t worry about me being cheerful. It is a very intense atmosphere. I think thats why it seems so odd.
One of my doctors has watched the team that did my spinal implant, and he likened them to a well-practiced NASCAR pit crew on a telepathic link. They’ve done a few hundred of these, and he said it was almost spooky how the assistants would be ready with whatever the surgeon needed without being asked.
I’ve seen workers at laundromats team-fold sheets, and was very impressed. They don’t bump heads as I do pretending to help my wife before shoos me away for being a nuisance.
I’ve been at an emergency C-section (as the father). It was a scary and emotional time, and some of my memories are a bit blurry, but there were definitely a few fairly nursery-rhyme like procedures involvind chanting and counting aloud that the nursing staff went through to check that all the swabs, gauze, etc were accounted for, and nothing could possibly have been left where it shouldn’t be.
I would love to hear or read some of these. Fascinating. (FWIW, there is a surprisingly important book on Finnegans Wake that deals with children’s counting games.)
Qadgop, as with so many threads of this type, you are able and willing to offer fascinating insight, thanks for taking the time to do it.
If I may ask another question, is this something particular to a c-section? I have had a surgery before, and have fairly extensive experience in the labor and delivery department (this is number 6), but never saw anything like this. Is the same thing done in preparation for any surgery, or anything that is a right now emergency? Or maybe all births, only usually all set up in advance?
I was thinking it may have been something like a warm-up for when the baby is actually out. I would imagine there is a systematic program of who does what in those first moments.
It is amazing how fast it all went. It was a few minutes after seven when the problem was first detected and she was born at 7:14. My goodness, don’t it take a boldly confident person to be a surgeon? I get stressed cutting open a box trying not to damage the contents.
UDS, I wish I could have asked my husband but he was left in the first (regular delivery) room. Just as well, I know he would have been unhelpful and perhaps even in the way. But I bet it would have been really cool to watch, on a stranger. Its just scary when its someone you love, or yourself.
I was present during my wife’s C-section. The two surgeons spent the ENTIRE PROCEDURE talking about the pros and cons of HD DVD versus Blu Ray. So I wouldn’t be completely surprised if something completely unrelated was happening in the room.
Might it be assistants passing surgical instruments back and forth to the doctors? They seem to do this very fast, sometimes even aggressively (almost slapping them into the doctors hand), and almost telepathically (doctor asks for something, but the assistant already has that very item already in their hand). It does seem like a rehearsed performance!
I think this is the most likely thing to seem like “playing paddy-cake” in the operating room.
Aw, c’mon, Leo … you can’t just waltz in here, drop a hint on something that sounds totally cool, and then not provide a clue as to who, what, where, when, or title.
Linky?
Kthxbai.
You went to a very with-it hospital.
They be P-Cake[sup]n[/sup]: to the extreme.
You’ll be doing it yourself. Well, once your baby starts developing the necessary motor skills.