Nurses at Atlanta hospital under fire over TikTok video mocking maternity patients

Four labor and delivery nurses at an Atlanta hospital came under fire over a TikTok video in which they shared the things that annoy them about expecting mothers and their families.

“My ick is when you come in for your induction, talking about, ‘Can I take a shower and eat?’” one nurse says.

“My ick is when you ask me how much the baby weighs and it’s still in your hands,” a second nurse says.

The nurses at Emory University Hospital Midtown were participating in a popular trend where users share their “icks” or turnoffs about a person. The TikTok trend originally began as a way for someone to describe why they stopped dating another person. 

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In the video, another nurse says her “ick” is when the mother says she doesn’t want pain medication “but you are at an eight out of 10 pain.” Another nurse says: “The dad comes outside and asks for a paternity test right outside the room door.”

One of the nurses talks about family members coming up to the nurse’s station “every five minutes” and the father “going room to room between one baby mama and your other baby mama.” 

Emory Healthcare said the video was “disrespectful and unprofessional,” and does not “represent our commitment to patient-family-centered care.”

“We have investigated the situation and taken appropriate actions with the former employees responsible for the video,” the company said in an Instagram post.

It’s not clear if the company fired the nurses as a direct result of the video. Emory Healthcare did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.

One Instagram user said the video “just showed everyone where NOT to go,” while another person said that childbirth is one of the most vulnerable times for a woman.

“To be belittled and mocked during that experience is outright unacceptable. If they’re saying those things on camera who knows what they said amongst themselves or how they treated their patients. It’s really just sad,” the person wrote.

Emory Healthcare said in its statement that patients should always feel they are being treated with “care and respect.”

“Every patient at Emory Healthcare deserves to be cared for by a compassionate, experienced team in a comfortable and safe environment,” the company said.