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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 |
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Hospital Policies
*applause*
Jo (RM) Elfanie wrote: This post is halfway between a vent....and 'food for thought'... |
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Hospital Policies
*standing ovation* g -- Jenn -DS Feb'92 -DD Feb'97 -35 weeks! |
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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. |
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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 |
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