A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » misc.kids » Pregnancy
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Hospital Policies



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old May 25th 04, 03:11 PM
Nic H
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hospital Policies

Extremely helpful post, thank you Stephanie.

Nic H
EDD 23 Aug 04 (Baby Girl!)



"Elfanie" wrote in message
...
This post is halfway between a vent....and 'food for thought'...

I have been reading here on MKP for 10 years now (yikes...has it
really been that long?) and I regularly hear people say things like,
"My hospitals policy is..." or "my doctor won't let me..." or "I have
to..."

Point #1: It's your body...it's your baby...you don't HAVE to do
anything, and nobody can make you do anything. Pregnancy (and
parenting) is full of choices - and they ARE our choices. A doctor
wants to induce you at 41 weeks, there is no sign of trouble from the
baby and you don't WANT to be induced...what can you do? Easy..you
can smile and say, "No, thank you." You could just not show up. Why
do women say time and time and time again, "I have to be induced on
Friday..." No, you don't unless there's a medical complication or
problem.
While I'm making this point...let me say that any scheduled induction
is an elective induction. Said a different way...anytime you go in on
a Thursday and they schedule you to be induced on Monday, it's
elective - non medically necessary. Think logically about this...if
they were worried about you or the baby's health, would they send you
home for the weekend? Of course not...you'd be going to the hospital
TODAY, or possibly tomorrow early morning. But certainly not next
week.


Point #2: Policies of hospitals...
I hear women saying, "I have to.." or "I can't.." when it comes to
hospital policies. There's a huge difference between a RULE and a
POLICY. The RULE is that your baby can not be born through your nose.
The POLICY is that you can't eat in labor. Big big difference.
Policies are suggestions....they are hospital routines. What if you
eat a muffin while in labor at the hospital, what are they going to do
to you? Arrest you? Spank you? Put you into time out? What are they
going to do to you? What if you refuse an IV...what are they going to
do to you other than bully you? You have hired your care provider
(and paid him/her big money as your employee!), you have hired your
hospital....they work for you!! You tell THEM what to do, not the
other way around...

Point #3: question...educate..and learn as much as you can. My heart
always feels a bit heavier in my chest whenever I hear someone's care
provider at 35 weeks say that their baby is either "big" or
"little"...because that's someone that's being set up for an
induction. (much more convenient for the doctor, BTW) If your care
provider says something...question it and research it. same goes for
if your mother says something, or your best friend, or your childbirth
educator, or your doula, or a stranger on the street.

Point #4: ALWAYS stick to your guns and do what YOU feel is best for
you and your baby...that's the only way you'll be able to live with
yourself tomorrow.


*deep breath* Phew....that feels better. =)


Stephanie Soderblom CLD CCCE CD(DONA) ICD
Mesa, AZ
Mommy to Mikael 5/9/95 - Kerstyn 8/6/99 - and Kevin 8/30/02
Student Midwife
Birth Doula / Childbirth Educator / Pregnancy and Birth Photography

http://www.birthdiaries.com - Birth Story Diaries=REAL BIRTHS = REAL

PHOTOS


  #2  
Old May 25th 04, 03:36 PM
JoFromOz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hospital Policies

*applause*

Jo (RM)

Elfanie wrote:
This post is halfway between a vent....and 'food for thought'...



  #3  
Old May 25th 04, 04:57 PM
Fer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hospital Policies


*standing ovation* g
--

Jenn
-DS Feb'92
-DD Feb'97
-35 weeks!


  #4  
Old May 25th 04, 09:24 PM
Mary Gordon
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hospital Policies

A real eye opener for me happened years back before I had my own
babies.

My brother was away in the army, so I volunteered to go to prenatal
classes with my sister in law. She was taking them through the local
public health office. People taking the classes were planning on
giving birth at a wide assortment of local hospitals. The nurse
teaching the class had a big binder of all the local hospitals and
their labour and delivery policies.

What totally blew me away was that there was no consistency at all -
which told me that these policies were not about evidenced based
medicine, or some consensus on best practice - but
just...well...BECAUSE WE SAID SO. Hospital A insisted on IVs. Hospital
B insisted on heplocks. Hospital C didn't care. Hospital D wouldn't
let mom eat. Hospital E would let her have light food like crackers
and custard. Hospital F said juice only. Hospital G said ice chips
only. Hospital H wanted an enema and a shave. Hospital I said neither.
Hospital J said continual montitoring. Hospital K said intermittent
only. Hospital L said a 20 minute strip when you got there and once an
hour. Blah, blah, blah.

To this day, this is the kind of thing that totally, totally drives me
insane. I don't mind rules at all, when they are based on some sort of
reasonable and defensible logic, but when they are clearly based on
AIR (i.e. we do it that way because thats what we do, and we don't
need a better reason than that). You don't mind putting up with
inconvenience, discomfort etc. if there is evidence that some rules
have good reason behind them, but when they don't...argh.

Mary G.
  #5  
Old May 28th 04, 07:56 AM
Jenrose
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hospital Policies


"Elfanie" wrote in message
...
This post is halfway between a vent....and 'food for thought'...

I have been reading here on MKP for 10 years now (yikes...has it
really been that long?) and I regularly hear people say things like,
"My hospitals policy is..." or "my doctor won't let me..." or "I have
to..."


Warning: m/c ment.


Elfanie, have I ever told you I *love* you? Or at least, I love the way you
think.

A quote from something I wrote in my livejournal a few weeks ago...

"A... bad thing about pregnancy is when you really want to do things one
way, but think that you "can't" because "it's not allowed".

There is a blissful freedom in simply stepping out of the whole lie that
medical people are "in charge" and can tell you what you "can" or "can't"
do. I hear women say this all the time, that "My doctor says I can't go past
39 weeks because the baby will be too big."

Honey, if a doctor said that to me, I'd say, "Watch me." The big lie is that
there are "absolutes" in birth at all.

It's like watching the world run around with blindfolds on, thinking that
they actually can't see. People grope around for people to lead them because
they're blindfolded, when if they could just reach up and untie the damn
thing, they could actually make their own way without needing help."
.........
I just talked to a midwife today, we're meeting with her on Saturday. I told
her all my risk factors and what I'm doing about them. I explained that I
wanted low key, low intervention care with a strong emphasis on me taking
care of myself. That mostly I want someone to come give me back rubs now and
then and give me emotional support as I need it in the process of a
pregnancy after a miscarriage. I asked her if my risk factors would be a
problem for her since she's working on re-establishing her license after a
sabbatical. She said, "I believe in the right of a woman to make informed
choices about her care. I don't care what the protocols say if you make an
educated choice to do something different."

It was like the clouds parted and sunlight beamed down and a choir sang in 8
part harmony. I was beginning to think they didn't *make* people like that
anymore! This after a perinatologist refused to answer my questions because
he considered me crazy based on my decision to have a homebirth whether or
not he approved. Jackass. He thinks I'm making a stupid choice based on
emotions and doesn't stop to consider that maybe I've been working around
birth issues for a damn long time and have a darned good reason for making
the decisions I've made about the kind of care I think will give me the
healthiest pregnancy and birth.

I can work with a care provider who considers me a rational, intelligent
human being capable of making informed choices. I don't think some doctors
believe that their patients are able to read above an 8th grade level, even
when it is demonstrated otherwise.

With this midwife, I could well have exactly the pregnancy and birth I want
and need.

The weird thing about my miscarriage was the bittersweet realization that I
truly had managed to reduce my clotting risk naturally without their damn
lovenox. I had next to no clotting in the miscarriage, and no clotting on
the placenta to speak of, just liquid blood. I've passed tissue, but no
clots bigger than a lentil. With my clotting condition, I'd expect clots the
size of a grape or golf ball if I wasn't anticoagulated enough. And I did
not bleed excessively at all, which I damn well would have on that doc's
Lovenox.
Jenrose


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
New Milford Hospital EMERGENCY! (John Sussman, MD to pay for new illustrations?) Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 0 May 14th 04 01:35 AM
Monkey Boy's birth announcement pologirl Pregnancy 7 April 25th 04 09:43 PM
Birth position at hospital with chiropractors (Carl Cleveland III, DC) Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 0 October 24th 03 05:55 PM
Hospital residencies for nurses and chiropractors... Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 1 August 23rd 03 06:18 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:19 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.