Language is Safety: “Say the Words”
How naming omplications correctly, out loud, to the patient in the room, reduced brachial nerve injuries, changed liability exposure, and opened the door to everything this series has not yet covered.
Labor and delivery. ObGyn. They save lives every day. They also harm patients in ways that are preventable, traceable, and fixable, if you know where to look. This series shows you exactly where to look, and by the time you finish it, you will be a more informed clinician, a more empowered patient, and a more effective advocate for the care that every woman deserves.
What the Patient Said
She was sitting across from her attorney. Her baby had a brachial plexus injury. Permanent. The kind that changes a life before it has properly started.
The attorney asked her what happened in the delivery room. She described it. The difficulty. The additional people who came in. The urgency she felt in the room without understanding its source. The baby who came out not breathing well, and then the days that followed, and then the diagnosis.
The attorney asked her: did anyone tell you it was shoulder dystocia?
She said no. No one had used those words. No one had told her this was an emergency with a name. No one had said clearly, in plain language, what was happening to her baby while it was happening.
She was in the room. She was conscious. She heard everything that was said.
And she had never heard the words shoulder dystocia.
That case, and others like it, led to a protocol change that turned out to be about much more than documentation. It was about honesty. About what patients are owed in the worst moments of their care. And about what happens when the words we use in a clinical emergency are chosen to inform the team rather than protect the patient, or worse, chosen to soften what is happening in ways that leave the patient unable to understand what occurred and why.
What Was Being Said Instead
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