Hospital Fires Nurses After TikTok Shows Them Mock Moms in Labor

A group of nurses in Georgia are no longer working at a hospital after sharing pet peeves about moms in labor on TikTok, their employer said. “We are aware of a TikTok video that included disrespectful and unprofessional comments about maternity patients at Emory University Hospital Midtown,” the Atlanta hospital said in a statement. “We have investigated the situation and taken appropriate actions with the former employees responsible for the video.” McClatchy News reached out to the Emory University Hospital Midtown for clarification if the employees were fired or quit and has not received a response.

The original video has been taken down, but dozens of other TikTokers shared it, so it’s still circulating online. In the video, the nurses share their “icks” (essentially Gen Z’s word for social turn-offs, or pet peeves) in the hospital.

The nurses bring up a handful of behaviors that irk them: mothers in labor who ask for too many things, mothers in pain who refuse epidurals, and tending to one “baby mama” after another. “The fact that this is (labor and delivery)…. a woman’s most vulnerable time,” one person commented on the shared video. “It should be a positive experience.” The original video was viewed over 100,000 times before it was removed, WXIA reported.

A woman shared her own experience giving birth at Emory University Hospital Midtown after she saw the video. TikTok creator @megamikym said there were many supportive and helpful nurses during her delivery, but said she did recognize one of the nurses in the TikTok — and didn’t have a positive experience with her.

“Emory did the right thing in removing nurses that have a problem with doing their jobs,” @megamikym wrote on her video. “As a first time mom I was an ‘Ick’ patient it seems. And I hate to think I really irritated their day by (having) 100 questions and concerns. Or for wanting to have my baby naturally. Or wanting to take a shower because my induction took over 2 days and I felt sweaty nasty and itchy.”

While many commenters appeared to support action against the nurses, others defended the former employees, citing difficult patients and conditions in the healthcare field. “I don’t think what they did was right, but (you all) will hold healthcare workers to the worst of the unattainable standards,” one person commented.

“Every job has icks we are all human they should’ve kept it off of TikTok though that’s their only downfall in my opinion,” another said. Emory Healthcare’s statement regarding the nurses received nearly 200 comments on Facebook. The nurses’ names were not released. “Our patients come first,” the hospital said. “This video does not represent our commitment to patient and family-centered care and falls far short of the values and standards we expect every member of our team to hold.”

(This story originally appeared on The Island Packet.)