An OB/GYN: On Palin's Leaking Amniotic Fluid (TPM)

[Waiting For Everyman]

Maybe this will clear up a few questions.

by a commenter on Talking Points Cafe

I am a physician and I deliver babies (my last delivery was about 36 hours ago). I am only focusing on the question of this airplane trip. I see two possibilities --

#1 - She wasn't leaking amniotic fluid, she was leaking urine. This happens all the time. Many women just can't tell the difference. The way I see it, this is the only way the story in the article above could make sense.

#2 - She is lying. There is very little chance that a 44 year old woman who was pregnant with her fifth child would last 8 hours with ruptured membranes and contractions. Especially when the baby was approximately 4 weeks early; She would have delivered this baby on the plane.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/08/palins-leaking-amniotic-fluid.php

Following the points above, there is a timeline of the day with the doctor's comments. He makes a good point about Palin driving away from the better equipped hospital after she landed in AK.

Personally, I give grandma-gate about a 50/50 chance either way. It's nothing someone with good judgement would do, but IMO that isn't Palin. If she lied, I'd guess that sooner or later someone in Alaska will probably come out with some detail which shows it up.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Grandma-gate is a good name for the Palin psycho-drama

She is either a liar, or she put herself and her unborn child at extreme risk with her behaviour. I tend to believe she is just a born liar.

[avaistheone1]

8. I think common sense points to Palin is an accomplished liar.

[LisaL]

2. She supposedly talked with her Dr. by phone.

If she thought she was leaking amniotic fluid, and not urine, she would have told the doctor she is leaking the amniotic fluid. Without examining her, how would the doctor know? Why would the doctor think it was reasonable for her to travel?

[TwilightGardener]

3. If she was only leaking urine and wasn't in labor, then why did

she report contractions and deliver upon returning home?--the baby was not yet at term.

[Barack_America]

5. Yep. That's the question here.

And I'd imagine that after 4 pregnancies, she might know the difference between urine and amniotic fluid.

[benddem]

21. not necessarily

if she'd never had leaking membranes with any other pregnancy she wouldn't be able to tell and even if she had the experience may not be able to ascertain. When I worked in delivery (a hundred years ago) we tested with a paper strip....but in any case the whole story stinks and is most probably bull shit.

[LisaL]

6. Right. And by phone, how would her doctor know she

was leaking urine? I don't think the urine leak idea makes much sense.

[Retrograde]

18. The Bill Frist school of remote diagnostics?

If he could diagnose Teri Schiavo - whom he had never met - from a videotape, Palin's long-time doctor could certainly diagnose her over the phone!

Seriously, if a woman experienced with the various conditions of pregnancy (which I admit I'm not) thinks her water breaks, and her doctor advises her to take a long plane trip, I'd think it's time to look for another doctor. I hear there are decent hospitals in Texas - probably, because of the greater population - even better equipped and experienced to deal with premature labor. And even if her health plan didn't cover it (ha!), just this past week we learned from the McCain campaign that hospitals never turn anyone away.

I don't know whose baby it is, and if she weren't running for an office of potentially enormous responsibility I wouldn't care. But as my grandmother said, if a person tells one little fib they'll eventually start telling bigger lies* and they won't stop because they have to keep covering up the first ones. (Any bets that by the end of next week the legendary Clenis will somehow enter into the discussion?)

*my grandmother's example ended with Hitler invading Poland - and this was in 1960: she clearly anticipated Godwin's Law!

[LisaL]

24. Bill Frist at least viewed a video.

[avaistheone1]

29. roflmao

:rofl:

[dorktv]

28. Well the Clenis is the reason she got pregnant in the first place!

The Clenis is all powerful.

[thunder rising]

4. It's nothing someone with good judgement would do, but IMO that isn't Palin.

I like that sentence.

[cliffordu]

7. We could do a movie:

"Babies on a plane"

[grantcart]

11. genius lol

Samuel Jackson as the steward who breaks out saying


slealalakslskellllennnnooappplsleksllnsoue nslielsnsoitnnglenneslwiiotneltiinsnotn kdllsieeeedioeososnei eliseintniont


(speaking in tongues translated "I have had it with the motherfucking babies on this motherfucking plane")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAJgFDCU3So

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. LOL.......... That's fricking funny..... but sick

I would add more but ABC might end up doing a TV movie on it
right before the election.

[cliffordu]

20. I'll bet donuts to baghdad you're right.....

[cliffordu]

19. ROFL....

:rofl:

[crispini]

9. Good quote here

That is the important point. It is poor judgment to get on a plane when you are pregnant and leaking amniotic fluid. If she knew her child had this disorder and got on a plane with leaking amniotic fluid, then she shows incredibly poor judgment.

Nail, meet hammer. That right there says why we need to be talking about it.

[Bread and Circus]

10. And yet the baby was born the next morning...which means the urine story

doesn't quite fit.

However, if often takes A LONG TIME for a primagravida (aka first pregancy) mother (ie 17 yo daughter) to go from "water broke" or "first contractions" to actually delivering.

There is something extremely fishy about this story. I'm not sure if Bristol is the mother, but a lot of things just don't add up.

[Pirate Smile]

12. The time frame is what seemed insane to me. By the fifth kid, they are coming faster. It would be

crazy to get on a plane trip for so long when you are in labor with kid number 5.

My water broke with my first kid (she was 5 weeks early). After speaking to my OBGYN, I took the time to take a quick shower before going to the hospital and was worried I wasn't getting there fast enough.

As a Mom of three, the story just seems bizarre and unbelievably irresponsible but I haven't jumped into the baby threads.

This is a touchy subject in a lot of ways.

I should be able to relate to Palin in a lot of ways (I've been a working Mom with a grad degree, career, etc. and three kids) but her actions re labor and afterward with a special needs infant make me relate less to her, not more. I completely relate to Michelle's comments re being a Mom. I haven't jumped on the threads about it because I do feel uncomfortable analyzing another Mom's actions but Palin's actions go completely counter to all of my Mom instincts.

[quercus palustris]

17. my mother had 4.

the first three were really long labors, 24+ hours, so when she had the fourth, she thought that she had plenty of time. She almost had my sister in the car on the way to the hospital.

[Pirate Smile]

23. My Mom's first labor was over 24 hours also. I was baby 2 (although she had a miscarriage and still

born in between). When my Dad took her to the hospital, he wanted to go back home to get his pipe which he had forgotten. He thought he was in for another marathon wait. He barely got back to the hospital by the time I was born. The plane trip seems crazy irresponsible and bizarre but, man, does David Gregory think that story is coooollll.

[Pirate Smile]

33. whoops

[cliffordu]

22. Thanks for sharing this....Most of us don't know what the hell we are talking about

at this level.

[seabeyond]

13. how the hell do you know it was pee. how the hell do you know she is lying

and how the hell do you know she would have plopped the baby out without having a visual exam
\
you are full of it

they are possibilities but it is not fact

[TheWebHead]

14. well if it's one

then a 1 month premature delivery as soon as she eventually got to Alaska doesn't make sense.

[sandnsea]

26. And not at the Anchorage NICU, but

at Wat-su, 45 miles away from Anchorage. I don't know what happened, but it sure is nutty.

[Midlodemocrat]

15. Point is, she's a liar.

And, FWIW, the OB she allegedly talked to over the phone could have easily ruled out urine. Urine smells like ammonia. Amniotic fluid has no scent.

Most OBs will tell their patients that as they reach their EDC in case they fear their membranes have ruptured.

[nene1985]

25. As a med student that was just on the maternity a couple of days ago

I totally agree, the only long delivery is usually with firstborns, after that with each child delivery time is shorter. With that said baby number 5, in a standard delivery, should not have been more than a 2 to 5 hour ordeal if that.

[Pirate Smile]

27. Thanks for your insight and welcome to DU.

:hi:

[kid a]

30. Another question: Why publically announce any water breakage?

Did someone see it?
Did she advertise it?

[Corgigal]

31. thanks for the info

She is probably a hypocrite but then again, most fundie republican women are. Her teen aged daughter being pregnant would knock up her little story time of her wonderful ethical values. I can't stand these people, they are more concerned with other think about them then actually living a real life. Pathetic.

[demo dutch]

32. What about this discussion on reckless behaviour.. see link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6846096&mesg_id=6846096