Still trying to process ds's birth

[zookeeper]

Our 6th baby, Aaron Scott, was born on May 11. He weighed 8lbs 6oz, 20.5in long. The birth was the easiest one so far! From the time my water broke to birth was about 2.5 hours. Only 20 mins or so was pretty intense. The dr missed the whole thing, but I'm kinda glad. The nurse we had was wonderful! She was calm and patient, didn't try to hurry anything, just let it happen. It was truly a natural birth!

The awful part started afterwards. We declined most of the standard care in the hospital and some god-complex ped. reported us to DHS for the Vit K!!!!! We left as soon as possible (like 6 hours after birth!) I just did not want to be there any longer! I got to spend the first two weeks of my post partum cleaning my house to get ready for a home visit from DHS. I'm furious that this dr could interfere with our family's joy in this way!! Not to mention the stress of DHS coming to my house!

The good side to all of this is, dh was extremely hesitant about a home birth. To put him at more ease, I agreed to a hospital birth. Well, he now says we will never birth in a hospital again as long as he can help it.

[happyhippimama]

Wow. I am so sorry that happened to you. Is it all over? I know DHS can be very intimidating. I'm sure you know, you have the right to do whtever you want. I will keep you in my thoughts.

[mum4boys]

Congratulations on the birth.

I am so confused about the vitamin K thing...was there any other allegations? WOW has dshs showed up yet? How do you know the peds reported you?

[zookeeper]

We see a family dr that doesn't do rounds for new babies. When the hospital called him, he said to have the on-call ped look at ds. She was rude and awful from the beginning. I know she's the one who reported us because she said so. She considered it medical neglect that we refused the vit K. (She was also snarky when she realized ds hadn't had a bath yet - pulled gloves out to look at my "dirty" baby.)

Yes, our DHS visit is over. It went as well as could be expected. She walked through the house to see where the kids slept. Asked to see the baby's formula. Thankfully took us at our word that he's totally breastfed. She did ask to speak with our other children individually, but we said no. She was gone in 5 minutes. I think she realized what a mistake this was!

Doing our research, we've been surprised to learn that a dr can pretty much cry medical neglect for just about anything they think is necessary and a parent declines! Kinda scary!! We knew we weren't doing anything that wasn't within our rights as parents. We expected some opposition, but not that much!

[kittn]

I jsut read an article (in mothering I think) about this happening to another family too. It happens more often than you think

Im so sorry you had to go through that dear. I hope you can process and heal from it. welcome to your new precious one!

[veganbaby]

How ridiculus! But I'm glad that you had an awesome birth.

[BirthInStyle]

Congrats and I'm glad the birth went well for you! So sorry about the DHS thing. I'm nervous about the possibility of that myself.

[Jilian]

I've heard of it happening before too. Do you also not vaccinate? If so, do you have an exemption filed with your state? We don't vax and we filed a religious exemption with our state, if anyone questions why DS is not vaccinated I show his exemption and that is the end of the questioning. It should work with DHS.

I've had to deal with DHS too, thanks to an angry ex husband. They are actually very nice as long as you cooperate with them and have nothing to hide. But it does stink that you had to spend your babymoon stressing over a DHS visit. You should absolutely write a letter of complaint about that doctor to the hospital and to the county health department!

[brittneyscott]

I understand how stressful the DHS can be. When I was pregnant with DD I had to miss a doc appt because of a family funeral. I called to reschedule it but still got a surprise visit from a social worker and nurse from the health dept checking to see that everything was ok. I told them I'd rescheduled the appt and they left me alone (never came in my house) but it was nerve wrecking regardless. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope everything else is okay for your family and new baby. Congratulations!

[txbikegrrl]

Wow, this blows me away because I work with older kids and someone has to practically kill them (literally) before CPS will step in and do anything. I see so many families who completely neglect their children and nothing happens. Theres a BIG problem...

[zookeeper]

We homeschool so we've never had a reason to HAVE to file an exemption. Our kids don't attend anything that requires vax or proof of not. Hmmm.......

[crysmomofthree]

I'm sorry that happened to your family after the birth or your little one I"m glad the visit is over and hopefully you can relax a bit now I can't believe the dr thought vit k was a valid enough reason to call dhs

[christyc]

Yikes! How frustrating!