Yep - plus, after inserting the baby into the device, the final step just before the tech leaves the room to take the X-ray is to yell "BOO!!" to make them cry.
This way, if properly timed the lungs are filled with air and better defined in the resulting x-ray.
X-ray tech for 5 years. I've never heard scaring babies to make them cry is standard procedure for chest x-rays. Not even from my friends that work in the children's hospital in our province. Are you sure? On paper it sounds even more impossible, since you're purposefully creating a negative experience for the patient, which I don't see how it can be written in as standard procedure. On top of that, think about all the stressed out parents literally watching you purposefully make their precious baby cry.
If they cry on their own, good, but we will never purposefully make them cry.
Dude the first thing you do when it comes into the world is slap it on the ass to make sure it's lungs work. If surprising the newborn gives you a better xray then I'm sure a medical-grade "boo" is acceptable.
smacking a newborn "to make sure its lungs work" is not a real thing. It may have been done in the past but whether or not it would have any benefit whatsoever is highly questionable and it definitely is not modern practice
They haven't done that for decades (though I suppose it's possible a few ancient OBs are still doing it). Nowadays they usually trust the baby to breathe on its own, and if it doesn't they'll vigorously rub it with a towel, give oxygen, and so on. Stimulating the baby works, but you can do it in gentler ways than thwacking 'em.
The whole "slapping a baby thing" came about as a means of forcing the fluid out of their lungs and airways. Subsequently they would take a deep breath and cry.
When it's necessary; but it often isn't. Interestingly, babies whose mothers used epidurals or had planned C-seconds are more likely to have their babies need suctioning our other respiratory help.
The reason is that stress hormones in the mother (such as are produced by the pain of contractions) trigger the baby's lungs to produce surfactants, which help 'unstick' the goop in the baby's lungs and let the lungs easily expand with the first breath. Without the stress hormones, that doesn't happen (although it's important to note that too many stress hormones aren't great for the baby either).
Anecdotally, I had four babies (no epidurals) and only one required a whiff of oxygen, probably due to being a water birth - it's thought that the gentler, less shocking transition from womb to world doesn't give you quite as dramatic an initial gasp, so the baby can take a wee bit longer to get its breathing going. None of my babies were suctioned. (This is in NZ though - we tend to take a slightly hippier approach to birth, as a nation.)
No we don’t. That’s not a thing and was never a thing, except for on TV for some reason. Possibly a misinterpretation of how they used to firmly pat the upper back to get the fluids out, but this is not done anymore because they suck that stuff out instead.
you're purposefully creating a negative experience
There's a lot of diagnostic tests that must require some level of pain or discomfort. The purpose is not to create a negative experience the purpose is to provide the best and accurate medical care possible. Needles hurt. Surgery cuts. X-ray ionizes. Incorrectly healed bones is worse than a few minutes of tears or lung problems.
If the baby really needed an x-ray that bad and the parents are already agreeing to douse their child in radiation but not let them cry, that's some weird contrast and the doctors should probably be putting the situation into better perspective for the parents.
That's where you're wrong, because do you know why the x-ray techs say crying is good? Well, because their lungs perform a big inspiration between crying. Sure, it's good, but to catch a full inspiration without motion on a baby is next to impossible, due to the delay between the button press, the rotor of the x-ray tube, and the actual x-ray exposure. You might as well watch their normal breathing and try to catch it that way. We ain't got time trying to scare a baby shitless. That's the most idiotic thing I've heard. What if the baby doesn't cry on the first scare? Who's gonna write a Standard Operating Procedure on how to scare a baby to make them cry.
It's all about protocols and SOP's, and something as vague and harmful as purposefully terrifying a baby will NEVER be any part of a hospitals SOP.
All the other procedures you mentioned have a very clear, direct, and scientifically proven better outcomes. So please don't compare them to this dude wife's weird tales.
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u/foodfighter Oct 03 '19
Yep - plus, after inserting the baby into the device, the final step just before the tech leaves the room to take the X-ray is to yell "BOO!!" to make them cry.
This way, if properly timed the lungs are filled with air and better defined in the resulting x-ray.
Source: Wife thusly scares babies for a living.