Wow, I’d have waved them off with my middle finger. Would love to know how this turned out.

My response: “Well I guess I should have just gone with a home birth”

Wait, so the staff of the hospital just goes home for the night, leaving no one around to handle emergencies? Riiiight.

IF that were true, the hospital would be the least safe place possible to have a baby. Well, for low risk moms in many areas the available hospital care IS drastically more dangerous than home birth.

Example: my brother-in-law was born at home. One of his relatives was telling his mom about how great the new maternity wing at the local hospital is (hint, hint…) and she asked “Haven’t they had resistant staph infections going around that hospital?” The relative admitted “Yes, And they have no idea where it is coming from!” She told me that didn’t sound like the best place for a newborn to her. So far not only all her kids but 4 of her grandbabies have been born safely at home.

I would ask if I could get that in writing….or can I record you saying that? That’s big news, that a local hospital cannot handle an emergency c-section. More women would need to know that when making choices about birth.

I’m seeing a trend here…lie to the mom to get what you want. It’s like the “your baby had one decel, you need to stay in bed for the labor.” “No you cannot drink” and “I’m more comfortable if you don’t go to the restroom or use the shower.” It was all for the “safety of the baby.” Yeah, right.

It makes me unspeakably angry that medical providers (of any flavor) take advantage of their patients like this! With my first, I had a c-section due to “non-reassuring heart tones” due to, what was essentially a pit-to-distress situation. After the surgery, when my son was born pink and screaming and healthy, the doc came in and said, “Well, it’s a good thing we took him c-section because he had the cord wrapped around his neck.” Yeah, it took me a half hour on the internet to figure out that was a load of bull crap. Thanks, doc, for lying to me to cover your a$$; if you hadn’t, I never would have had a wonderful hbac for my next birth.

Grrrr!

Wow, so they’ve just taken to lying?

Not trying to be sarcastic, but you say that like it’s a new thing?

I’ve read books written twenty to thirty years ago about birth, and lying to patients in order to get compliance was also commonplace then. The lies might be on any subject from the need for drugs or surgery during birth, to breastfeeding, to anything in between.

I expressed concern about having my newborn injected with a multitude of vaccines at his early checkups, and was lied to that I had no legal choice but to submit to the current vaccine schedule, even though I had *every* right to vaccinate according to a different schedule, or choose not to use them at all.

I realize the nurse probably thought she was acting in my child’s best interest, but it is my opinion that kind of dishonesty only fosters distrust and animosity between patients/parents and care providers. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.

Wow. Nothing like a scare tactic to try to force a mother to do something she doesn’t need to do.

Not every hospital has an anesthesiologist on site 24 hours a day. That’s why many hospitals have banned VBACs, since many hospitals see ACOGs guidelines as stating that this needs to be in place. Any hospital that isn’t safe to provide VBACs makes you wonder just how safe they are to handle any birth, seeing as an emergency can arise at any moment, right?

Amy,

That’s always my question. If you don’t have the resources to handle a VBAC emergency, how do handle the emergencies that crop during other births?

I’ve wondered how they manage the emergency appendectomy from the ER, as well. It’s not just the laboring moms at risk, here. If there’s no emergency anesthesia, how can they do ANYTHING? Sorry, dude on the fourth floor with sudden , you have to wait for someone to drive in. If it’s a hospital, there needs to be an anesthesiologist there, or there shouldn’t be an ICU, a L&D ward, an ER, a surgical ward, etc. Emergencies happen all the time.

Kat: Wait, so the staff of the hospital just goes home for the night, leaving no one around to handle emergencies? Riiiight. IF that were true, the hospital would be the least safe place possible to have a baby.

Actually Kat, that it basically the situation at one hospital in my area, but they don’t tell people…as a doula for nearly 9 years, I didn’t even know until about 7 months ago that at this particular hospital the anesthesiologist & pediatrician are not “in house,” but rather at at a hotel.

So yes, it has resulted in bad outcomes when a baby is born in poor condition when it wasn’t predicted by fetal monitor tracings.

TJ: Amy,That’s always my question. If you don’t have the resources to handle a VBAC emergency, how do handle the emergencies that crop during other births?

Ah, but TJ, you are actually *thinking* about this. “They” don’t want you to do that.

This is mine. This was said to me at hour 41 of unmedicated labor during my hospital VBAC attempt. The doctor also flat out lied to me about my progression & my baby’s position, which I didn’t find out until I got my records a few months later. Very long story short, it was an incredibly traumatic experience for me. Ultimately, I was told that, at 8 lbs 13 oz, she was just too big to drop into my pelvis to dilate me properly.

Less than 2 years after this, I pushed my 9 lb 10 oz son with both of his hands by his head out in my spare bedroom over a completely intact perineum. This OB received the birth announcement in the mail, & I confronted him in the grocery store one day when he was ogling over my new baby, obviously not remembering who I was. He remembers now. I’ve passed him a few other times in town since then, & each time he hangs his head & walks away like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Still scarred, still unnecessarily traumatized, but at least I now know I’m not broken. . . most women who are lied to & made to feel broken never know otherwise.

Two words: GOD COMPLEX.

When I was 2cm, attempting a pain med free delivery with pitocin, the anesthesiologist came in 3 times after I specifically asked that he not show his face from the get go (scared of the temptation, lol) and never once said he was leaving and this was my “last chance”.

When the nurses had convinced my husband I was crazy and he finally talked me into it, the nurses told me he wass’t there and gave me stadol, which made me literally FALL ASLEEP between my 2 minute contractions for 2 hours before he arrived. When he did finally get there, he gave me SUCH a hard time my mother told him to shut up because this was his job!

He gave me a walking epidural so I felt everything from the waist down, which in the end was probably best, because at least now I know I can handle the pain, lol.