My wife had a private room, and they had a remarkably uncomfortable pull out chair/bed that I slept in. I agree, sleeping in the bed with her was odd - women who’ve just given birth are often still in “some discomfort”, and sharing a narrow hospital bed wouldn’t have been the best way to recover.
Oh, and the way I remember it was the 2 day clock started counting down from birth, not from admission - so if you’re in labor for 23 hours they don’t kick you out 25 hours after delivery.
Why should it? “Twitter” is a real word, apart from its new meaning.
When my oldest was born twenty years ago, I had a private room (so no roommate issues) and there was a roll away bed for my husband to use if he stayed with me. He did stay with me but he slept on the hospital bed next to me instead of using the roll-away. The baby stayed with me to (didn’t go to the nursery) so it was often (if you can call 2 days often) all three of us in the bed napping together.
I slept in the room after all three of my kids were born, but I always had a pull out cot thing, and there was never a roommate. The roommate is what I didn’t find believable…well that and the male lactation consultant. I have a hard time buying that most people would be comfortable with that.
The roommate didn’t bother me so much as far as realism, but that her baby was on the same side as Pam’s bed and the curtain was left open did. I have lots of experience with hospital rooms (from working in the hospital) and maternity wards, and they would have most likely positioned each baby between its mother and the wall as opposed to in between them like that. Of course that would have ruined the set-up for the “wrong baby” incident (which I did think was funny) so for me that is an okay bending of realism.
The male lactation consultant I am not sure about. I don’t want to seem unPC or sexist, but I have never met a man in that field, and it has only been in the last several years that male nurses weren’t the butt of jokes, so I have a hard time believing a male would gravitate to that job or be as readily accepted by nursing new moms as he was (or seemed to expect to be). I agree that I doubt most people would be comfortable with that even if we are completely comfortable with male OB/GYNs or male nurses or other “intimate” medical roles.
I laughed out loud a few times during this ep; “shove spicy food up her butt,” had me spitting out my drink and I loved how Dwight refused to listen to Pam about the location of the keys, then proceeds to break their window to gain entry. The bit about Stanley having two lovers was pretty good too.
I couldn’t believe how accepting Pam was of the male lactation consultant. Usually it takes a new nursing mom a few weeks to get so blase about her breasts. That was way out of character for her to let him start tweaking her nipples.
I was really blase pretty quickly myself and it really surprised me. I’m a lot like Pam too, although my denial of labor and the “omg I am not ready!” only lasted half an hour.
I had an incredibly attractive ob/gyn and while I was mostly ok with him for the other stuff, I totally would not have been cool with a male lactation consultant. The women I worked with were helpful because of their ability to say “this is what I did.”
The episode wasn’t great to me, but I loved Pam and Kevin together. They were adorable.
I really liked this episode. I voted “loved,” actually. I don’t get the hating on it. I think the Dwight/Angela thing is funny - they need some new storylines, and even if this is only shortlived, it has potential. I’m so glad Andy finally asked Erin out. I loved the Kevin/Pam food bonding. And I thought Michael was pretty funny. I loved that he walked in too early and saw more than he was hoping to see during the delivery. Also, as asked upthread, *was *that the same actress playing Pam’s mom?
“That baby’s gonna have a LOT of hair!”
I didn’t think so, but after quite a bit of searching, it seems that’s the same actress after all (although a different one from 2005’s Sexual Harassment episode when we first met Helene).
That line about the hair made me laugh, especially because I was so annoyed when I was having my daughter and everyone in the room was like, “Ooh, look at all her hair!”
Re: male lactation consultants. I have heard that there are a few. Most likely they are husbands who were very invested in their own kids breastfeeding. Also, Dr. Jack Newman is a pioneer in lactation medicine, and runs a clinic in his hospital. I’ve seen videos of him handling women’s breasts, and he mentioned helping his daughter in law at the clinic. Talk about awkward!
Anyway, I don’t think any LC, regardless of gender, would go to grabbing a woman’s breast right off the bat. Often they have “demo” breasts made of foam that they can use to show the mother what to do. I also have never heard of flicking a nipple as a breastfeeding technique! But it was done for comic effect, just like the placement of the other baby in the room. I thought the whole thing was funny. (Actually, I was more irritated that they assumed her milk would be in at the hospital - it can take five days sometimes!)
I loved the scene of them trying to swaddle the baby. Soooo true to life.
I really liked Angela’s reactions to Dwight. Clearly she’s over being mad at him, and was ready to “bang it out” in the warehouse in an entirely different way from Dwight’s meaning. If she gets pregnant, what will her explanation be at the office?
I finally gave up looking, turned on the episode on the NBC site & forwarded to the final credits. Yep. Linda Purl.
But I think Michael meant the baby would take after her mother having a lot of hair, which he just saw where he didn’t expect.
Yeah, I know, it was just funny in another way to me as well.
I too liked that they didn’t have the stereotypical delivery room scene. Also, the writers came up with a plausible way for it to be an emergency to get out of the office and to the hospital (stupid Michael!). I’m pretty tired of fictional representations of the onset of labor, where the woman is fine one minute, and then suddenly having massive contractions and water breaking, so she knows instantly that she’s really in labor. Most people spend a week or more wondering, “Is that a B-H, or am I starting labor?”
Nitpick: The cop said “Don’t make this difficult, Dwight.”
Also liked Dwight trying to slip “Worf” in as a baby name, and Angela called him on it. “No names from Star Trek!”
And I was especially amused that neither Andy nor Kelly realized why the fax number was busy.
I got the impression that they were establishing, subtly, Worst Hospital Evar. Everything from the 2-day max stay to the nurse getting pissy at them for having opinions about their baby to the intrusive lactation consultant pointed to a horrible, awkward experience, the kind of thing The Office does best.
Don’t forget the aide who “encouraged” Pam to get out of the wheelchair so he could get back inside to work.
I thought there were a ton of funny moments, but the pacing was weirdly awkward, particularly near the beginning. For instance, the IT guy shows up, is kind of there in the middle of a joke, then never seen again.
Was Michael throwing the car keys a reference to something? It felt like one.
Yep, I’m pretty sure they were at Scranton’s CMC. Horrible place, lazy incompetent staff (not to mention rude), don’t give a fuck about their patients (even the ones with insurance). :mad: