Over the past 34 months homebirth advocates have taught me a lot. They have taught me that babies lost don't matter at all. They get angry when a homebirth death is shared and make comments about how the baby would of died anyway, babies die in the hospital too, and the location had nothing to do with it. They are incredibly rude and hurtful towards moms with any homebirth loss or injury. Obviously, when Dr Amy started up the Hurt by Homebirth site, we received serious backlash. Advocates were incredibly angry that there wasn't a hurt by hospital birth site. So, one San Diego area licensed midwife, named Vickii Gervais, decided to start a hurt by hospital birth site.
Now, what kind of stories are on this site?? How many mothers or babies died due to negligence?? How many mothers or babies were injured?? The answer to these questions is none. What consitutues being hurt by hospital birth??
Story 1: was a mom who ended up with an emergency c-section at 35 weeks for a footling breech. An inverted T incision was given in order to get baby out. Mom later had a VBA3C in the hospital with a supportive OB. The 4th child just happened to of also been her only full term baby. This was her blessing from Jesus!
Story 2: was a mom who didn't get her birth plan followed. She had fetal monitors strapped to her belly that were snug, didn't labor in the shower, didn't get her waterbirth, and was left to labor with her husband/family. Oh, then the drain was clogged in her shower.
Then story 3: Mom who (in 1975) was strapped down, given an IV, given oxygen, given an episiotomy and had her baby taken for 6 hours. That one did make me cringe. However, I took the opportunity to call my own mother and ask about birthing practices when I was born (1980). Turns out it was routine to rush you to a birthing room alone, do an enema, do an episiotomy, put legs in stirrups to push, then take baby for a bit. If you've had a baby in the last 20 years, you'll know this is no longer routine care. My mother was with me for the birth of my youngest and was quite impressed with all the changes made.
What really got me about these stories was their attempt at one-upping women who had their babies die. I would happily have a c-section or a deviation from my birth plan if it meant a living child. Are you trying to tell us that a non perfect birth experience is worse than having a dead baby?? Is your experience that much more important than the baby's??
This site thoroughly disgusts me and I cannot believe someone who calls themselves a professional would publish stories of women who weren't harmed or hurt by a hospital birth. They are women who sound like my children when I don't buy the flavor ice cream they wanted!
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11 comments:
The blog information reads like they made it just mock the families at Hurt by Homebirth. I can't even really put in to words how disgusted I am.
When I first read that blog, I thought it was some sort of sick joke. Then when I realized it was for real, it just made me angry.
I thought much the same thing as I read that blog. Is this the best they can come up with, for those "hurt by hospital birth"? I have heard of horrible outcomes due to mismanagement and malpractice in hospital. Those people, though, don't generally reject the medical system but pursue legal action and advocate for change. The cases on the Hurt by Hospital birth were not even close to the same caliber as those on the hurt by homebirth site.
"What really got me about these stories was their attempt at one-upping women who had their babies die." -- This says more about you than the women who had been posting.
You know, as a mother who was hurt by hospital birth YOUR post is insulting. You do NOT need to have a dead baby to have been hurt physically or seriously damaged emotionally or have your baby hurt or all combined (not talking about a bad experience alone). Hospitals are just as negligent as some midwives and can be even less concerned about safety.
There is no place for women like me to share my stories with others with similar experiences. Due to hospital negligence I have a host of problems in my nether regions and there is no knowing whether or not the results of their actions will lead to developmental delays or injuries to my daughter. We won't know for up to 10 years. That's right...10 years of wondering. Every day.
And you know what? The comment by La Mama Loca is really ignorant. We pursued legal action and were told that unless "evident" harm had been done there was nothing they could do and no one would take our case. So we have to have what? A dead baby to pursue legal action? How is that right, or fair? It's not. Justice needs to be served and no other parents should have to go through something like that again yet all of the people involved in our care are still there practicing like nothing happened. How is it fair or right that those of us who really have been hurt by hospital birth are told we being childish. Really? My baby's neck almost broke thanks to the hospital.
What about my cousin who went into premature labor and the hospital did nothing and let their baby die? When will they get justice? When will they have somewhere to share their stories?
This post enrages me. There is no where for people like us to turn to because spiteful people like you were bothered by a few selfish stories among people who really have been hurt by hospital birth. I am truly sickened at the tone of this post. And you called some of these women selfish.
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"If you've had a baby in the last 20 years, you'll know this is no longer routine care." And that makes that woman's story and less valid? Does it make what they were doing any less wrong? No! And now thanks to people like you she has NOWHERE to share her story. Thanks to people like you there are thousands of women hurt by hospital birth who have no where to go for support. Great job. You must really care about others. NOT. You only care about your story and your selfish beliefs.
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Get the hell over yourself.
http://www.solaceformothers.org/
There, a place to share your story, Firestar.
Funny, I am a midwife who has done both hospital and home births in about equal numbers (so I actually have a basis from which to speak), and I have considered making a "Hurt By Hospital Birth" site myself because of all of the severe morbidity - and mortality - that I have seen in hospital settings; terrible harm that was entirely unnecessary and would never have occurred at any of my home births.
If a midwife did any of the things that I have witnessed in some of those hospital births, she would be in prison, but those doctors are still practicing with impunity. THAT is what is disgusting.
And no, I am not talking about "hurt feelings" or c-sections (unwanted but needed), I am talking about dead babies...and worse, who could have been fine. No mother should have to go through that, at the hands of any provider, but my experience in both locations has clearly shown less harm to families at home.
I do not dread transports because of the attitude of the receiving hospital, because that is not a problem for me. I dread them because I worry that my client may be at the mercy of a genuine quack if the wrong person happens to be on call there. Thank God for the really good ones, I wish we could clone them.
HighlandMidwife, I don't know how many births you have done total. However, common sense would dictate that more "genuine quacks" make it to becoming a homebirth midwife than an OB. Why? You tell me. How much schooling did you have to do to get your license? Do you have a license at all? Many don't.
Please do start your blog. I'd love to see how many stories pour in about how an OB killed a baby that would have otherwise lived at home. I hear many midwives and doulas claim this, but mostly this is based on pure conjecture, religious belief in homebirth, and assumptions that are simply not true.
@ laura:
Personal attacks? Really? Your post is full of "assumptions that are simply not true", but mine was not. [Oh no, a midwife who makes sense, what will they think of next, and I did not even refer to religion!] Did your "common sense" make you question whether I am even licensed, when I would have to be very well-credentialed indeed to do hundreds of hospital births...??? Please, save the personal attacks for someone who deserves them, like the various Ob's on call who on 3 different occasions in as many years sent my patients home that I sent in for induction (and c-section if necessary), only to have them end up with dead babies and almost dead themselves from pre-eclampsia before I even knew that they had been released from the hospital. Yes, that happens - midwives can and do make better diagnoses and clinical judgment calls than doctors, and unfortunately it is not a rare and isolated event. So take your sanctimonious snobbery and use it on folks who hurt people. I did not attack you, so if you can't handle the truth without being rude to the messenger, then don't read.
The location of birth and type of provider is not what causes harm, it is the quality of the individual provider, and the influence of the policy-makers who tell them how to treat. Plenty of harm happens in hospitals that is not inevitable - that's why we have terms like iatrogenic and nosocomial. I have seen enough of them firsthand that you would not have to wait to see "how many stories pour in".
Birth trauma is tragic no matter where it happens, but again - I see a lot less of it at home births. That is why I prefer them; it sure is not because of the cozy hours or awesome pay. (That was sarcasm, in case you didn't get it.)
Oh wait, I get it now. "With woman" is referring to other MIDWIVES. Not the women who give birth. Now it makes total sense.
At least one of the moms is suing, so don't assume that nothing is being done. Her attorney told her that the only thing that will happen is that malpractice might settle, but - and he looked me straight in the eye when he said it - if her MIDWIFE had been the one who screwed up instead of the hospital, it would be on the news and my license would be pulled, and charges pressed.
And those were different doctors, who happened to be on call at different hospitals, so don't assume that I "send" my patients to quacks. You folks act like this never happens, but it happens all the time, and all I did was point out that the location does not matter when a mother and baby are harmed, and knowing you have a good provider is the closest to a guarantee of safety that any of us have.
So honest and balanced perspective is not welcome here. Got it.
The location does, indeed, matter. Because the location also determines quick access to technology, surgery, drugs, and high-tech equipment that are vital to saving an infant's life when seconds matter. This sort of insistence that up is down and common sense makes no sense is exactly what has lead many of us down the yellow brick road of believing that homebirth is safer than the hospital.
The fact that you have presided over hundreds of births at both locations and can still deny this reality tells me that you have no more of a balanced perspective than a religious zealot or a flat-earth reality denialist. And Bambi has heard from enough of those since the death of her daughter, so no, I don't think she needs to hear from one more "genuine quack." YOUR words.
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