Jan 14

“You Are Being Selfish. Why Don’t You Want To Protect Your Baby…?”

“You are being selfish. Why don’t you want to protect your baby? Just get the exam, this is coming from someone with two Master’s degrees. It’s my responsibility to do what’s best for your child– and if you continue to refuse, the hospital will not give you care.” – Certified Nurse Midwife to mother refusing a “routine” cervical check at 35 week prenatal.

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There are 10 comments to this post.

Mama had this to say, Jan 14, 2012 @ 10:53 am (Quote)

Two pieces of paper do not automatically make you intelligent.

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katiecnm had this to say, Jan 14, 2012 @ 10:55 am (Quote)

What complete BS! If mama wants to protect her child she needs to keep declining early “routine” cervical checks!

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jaed had this to say, Jan 14, 2012 @ 11:08 am (Quote)

It’s not so much the pressure for an unneeded exam that’s the problem here as the language and attitude. “You’re being selfish” – ugly characterization of the mother in an attempt to bully her consent out of her. Implication that the exam will “protect your baby” and that the mother doesn’t want to do that – half-truths and more ugly characterizations in an attempt to guilt the mother’s consent out of her. “Two master’s degrees” – irrelevant boasting in an attempt to intimidate the mother’s consent out of her. “The hospital will not give you care” – flat untruth in an attempt to threaten the mother’s consent out of her.

“Oh, but we believe in informed consent! You have the right to be informed of what we demand, and to consent to it!”

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Jane had this to say, Jan 14, 2012 @ 11:11 am (Quote)

“Surely as someone with two master’s degrees you know the value of evidence, and therefore I would like to ask you to clearly and cogently present to me the evidence showing that a cervical exam at 35 weeks will have any benefit whatsoever to my baby.”

“Secondly, as someone with two master’s degrees, surely you’ve heard of informed consent, and surely you have read the hospital’s Patient’s Bill Of Rights, which states that I am entitled to refuse any procedure I do not want.

“Moreover, if this conversation is taking place in the United States, Federal law states that if a pregnant woman presents at the hospital in labor, they are not allowed to turn her away. I’m sure that as someone with two master’s degrees, you will be happy to update your understanding of the laws regarding maternity care.”

(Once again, if someone is bullying and badgering you, it’s because she doesn’t feel she has the facts at her back. If she had the facts to back herself up, she wouldn’t say, “This is coming from someone with two Master’s degrees, just get the exam.” )

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Ellen Reply:
January 14th, 2012 at 10:24 pm Ellen(Quote)

Bingo!

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Melissa had this to say, Jan 14, 2012 @ 11:34 am (Quote)

Wow. Where to begin.

How ’bout with this gem:

This CNM is linking *her* supposed concern for baby’s best interest (because who could care more about the baby than the multi-degreed ass who weighs baby’s mother and spends a few minutes a month with her? Certainly not the uneducated, half-dressed “girl” sitting on the crinkly paper of the exam table! Why, she’s only a mom!) with the threat that the hospital will deny the dangerous, selfish, wayward mother CARE if she does not acquiesce to a bogus intervention.

So, “honey”–just let nice nursie save you and your baby from yourself, okay? We wouldn’t want the wonderful haven of safe, modern birth to DENY YOU CARE! (So which is it again? Who am I supposed to be afraid of? Which is the carrot and which the stick? Sometimes I get a little lost…)

Nice, huh?

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