mommies...never let your newborn out of sight!

[Waterdrinker]

Don't mean to sound alarmist...but this is my story. I recently got DD's newborn records. I wanted a copy and need to give them to my new ped (good guy). I went BALISTIC when I saw that there are 4 mistakes on her newborn record.
1. the erythomyosin (eye sauve for std's given to newborns) was checked off as given-- it Wasn't!
2. gbs was listed as "not tested" I had the routine test at 36 weeks, was neg. then tested positive at birth -- and dd was tested when my test was +, she was -
3. hep B consent / refusal form is completely missing! the unsigned copy says "in office." i called the on-call pediatrician for their records and they don't have the form either. Dh and I refused the hep b vax
4. hep B is listed as being given and a date is written down. the hep B was not given!

Mommies...never let your babies out of your sight. DD was never out of sight and we know the hep B wasn't given. now we have to dispute her medical records. who is going to remember what happened 3 yrs. ago? A nursing student friend of mine said that it is a classic case of a nurse checking off routine procedures without thinking. YIKES!
after getting angry to tears, i finally calmed down. now i politely request copies of every visit, am willing to pay for it if necessary.

just makes me sick to think of what is done to babies without parent's consent.....never let your baby out of your sight!

[Past_VNE]

Wow! Waterdrinker, I'm sorry you have such a paperwork ordeal on your hands!

Another reason to not let your newborn out of your sight: (Granted this was 1976, but it still could ring true!!)

My MIL went to a Philadelphia birthing center to have my DH. She would not sign the form for eye drops or circumcision. She knew she had no STDs and everyone in her and Daddy's families and big brother (1 yr old) were intact. Easy decisions, really. Nurses and Dr. gave her holy h#ll for not okaying the circ. They were disgusted, furious and horribly mean about it. But, eh? What could they do, right? It wasn't their baby to cut!

So, next morning comes along...DH gets cut. Doctor says, "OOPS, my mistake." That's BullS... and everyone knows it. Young and poor, what do the parents do? They can't help their baby, but they can sue. They either won or settled out of court for a few thousand, I can't recall which. Not enough to give justice to willful mutilation of their baby, but at least they didn't just say, "Gee, Doc, that's okay."

Sick, just f'ing sick. Now, my husband has to bear the lifelong effects of some doctor's personal obsession.

[momto l&a]

For reasons like the above mentioned is why I choose to have my children at home.A lot less stressful IMO.

[Ony]

:angry

I wouldn't sue for money. Just for the Dr.s pinky finger delivered to me in a jar. He/She would never say "Oops" again.

[ella-makes-3]

Wow, how terrible is that. I would be furious about it, when we had dd in Dec 2002 we asked for her not to be given the hep B vaccine, and she was. We did realise until afterwards, and decided not to make a big deal about it, as we didn't feel THAT strongly about it.
However, we are expecting #2 in Feb 2005, and I am trying to read a little about circumcision. DH is cir'ced, and feels very strongly about it. Any good reading materials around that I can check out. I don't want to battle with him about this, but just want to inform myself, so I can maybe in turn inform him too.
Is there a forum here at MDC?

[heveasoul]

The Case against circumcision (http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=44)

Also, Mothering mag had an entire issue devoted to it a few years back - maybe they've archived it there (haven't gone there in a while)

[Piglet68]

My fears were that baby would be slipped formula, pacifiers, etc when I wasn't looking (probably unfounded since it was a very BF-friendly hospital). Either me or DH always accompanied DD to the nursery, where we could watch everything. I never thought to check her records, though.

But it's definitely one more wonderful plus to having a home birth! :thumb

[BlueMoonTime]

My fears were that baby would be slipped formula, pacifiers, etc when I wasn't looking

What an excellent point!!! That very thing happened to us...
I was trying to bf Andrew and because I was a young and inexperienced mother in Arkansas, I decided to let him go to the nursury so that we could get some much needed rest. BAD IDEA! They gave him bottled formula and a pacifier without consent and all within the first day!! :angry
Needless to say, he never really latched on too awful well because of this...
This time around, we will not make this awful mistake again- we learned our lesson!

[darsmama]

17 years ago my bro was circed in the hospital (after being born at home) without consent or anything.

[becca011906]

I had that problem when dd was born... nursing staff insisted that i send her to the nursery b/c she wouldn't sleep only wanted to nurse and i hadn't slept for 2 days... so i agreed as long as they would only put her in the swing and no passifier or formula ect.... well they brough her back 4 hours later and she had a darn pasifier in her bassinet i was so made... needless to say this baby will be in my room regardless of sleep... and dh will go to nurser with her when she is cleaned up, ect....

[Waterdrinker]

Luckily my DS now 8 mos. old was born w/out challenges and his records are fine. This time I not only declined hep b but also vit k and circ. Dh also accidently attached a prayer I had written covering everyone from me, baby, labor assistant. nurse, doctors, etc. to the birthplan. We were probably "one of those parents." Dh and I went with ds everywhere. Bolted out of the hospital in 36 hours. It cracks me up when I hear about nurses taking babies to the nursery to sleep. Can't they sleep in mommy's room and not disturb mommy?

anyway, i worried for 9 months about nurses poking my baby. while we've decided we're done having children, if there is a next one, the wee one will be born at home. my nerves can't take it.

BUT i have heard wonderful things about a local birthing center. I gave birth at a 'women's and babies' hospital and had to worry about every intervention being pushed like some freaking daily menu special.

[crayon]

same thing happened when my nephew was born, they had his bands wrong and saw the date was wrong so I told the nurse, then they made new ones and the doc was wrong then they made new ones yet again and time of birth was wrong! It was very very scary, I wonder what DDs records would say, never looked :irked:

[sadkitty]

Yikes! That's why I refuse to step foot in a hospital this time unless we will die without one! But, for dd I got up outta my hospital bed (after 23 hours of labor and 4 of pushing) even with my newly broken tailbone and carried that baby everywhere those nurses and docs wanted to take her.

[mehndi mama]

Fears of hospital staff doing things without your consent aside, I would also never let my newborn out of my sight right after the birth. When a nurse takes the baby to "get them cleaned up a bit", that means they grip them firmly in the football hold, run their head under the faucet, squirt a little phisoderm on their hair & SCRUB & SCRUB & SCRUB with a gauze square. Then they run 'em under the faucet again, Towel dry their head, COMB their hair :eyesroll , and then repeat the procedure with the rest of the baby's body.
I went to the nursery with the nurse when my friend's baby went to "get cleaned up", and was absolutely APPALLED at the rough handling. Who the hell wants to be scrubbed with soap & a scratchy disposable washcloth in their first MINUTES of life? And after such a beautiful, gentle birth, too! Oh, they gave the vitamin K shot right then, too. They were going to wait for her to "calm down a bit" before they took her back to her mother after the shot, but I insisted that she be taken back immediately to nurse. :angry

[LadyWulf]

Here are some good links on circumcision. I won't go into my story about it as it still upsets me too much. Just make sure your husband KNOWS what he wants done to his son BEFORE he does it.

http://www.mamasnature.com/Circ1.html

http://www.cirp.org/

http://www.cirp.org/library/procedure/plastibell/ this link is the one that quickly changed the minds of my husband and several other fmaily members who pretty much bullied me into haveing this done to my son.

http://www.edae.gr/circumcision.html

I feel the pain of anyone who has ever had a procedure done to their child that they did not want done. When my son was born i told the Dr, nurses, DH and anyone who would listen that i did NOT want him taken from my sight. the Dr told me "We'll see about that" in a very intimidating tone. When my son was born the Dr wouldn't even let me see him or hold him and he was taken away to the nursery. They said he was blue and not breating but i could plainly hear him crying and see that his toes and fingers were slightly blue. I even have pictures to show this. I didn't get to see him for almost 3 hours and they had already fed him a bottle of formula in the nursery. Breastfeeding went down the drain due to the fact that they would only allow me to keep him in my room for so long and when they took him he would be given a bottle or a pacifier in the nursery. We are TTC #3 now and i plan for a homebirth. This is not even close to being the WHOLE story of what all happened in the hospital. I can't manage to tell the whole story even now. I am fighting to stay calm right now.

[srain]

Just curious- why are you worried about her records? Does it matter if "they" think she got eye drops and the vaccine? I agree in many cases mistakes on medical records can be a really big deal, but for you, is it worth challenging them?

[ella-makes-3]

Thanks so much for all the advice and links. I did look at tha plastibell one, very briefly, and definately cannot bring myself to watch the video. Will wait until dh will watch it with me too. Can't imagine looking at it twice.
I am sure that after reading the information that dh will change his mind.

It is not natural for me to routinely circumcise as I am European.
However, I do know 2 men, one of them my Dad, who had to become circumcised recently. I am sure that although it was not painless, at least they got to have some sort of anesthetic?

[LadyWulf]

The plastibell site is rather unbiased. It is just the simple facts of how it is done. Just from what i can tell i would think it would be more painful for the infant to be cut than the grown man. Grown men DO get anastetic for it. All they will do for an infant is a penile ( i believe it is called dorsal block)block. This is where the instert a needle at the base of the penis on the top side and inject a bit of numbing agent there. The problem with this is that it DOES numb the penis but it DOES NOT numb the foreskin at all. The foreskin nerves come from the perenial area whereas the penile nerves are coming from the pubic area above the penis. Maybe one day i will share the full story on how and why my son was circumcised when i absolutely did not want it done.

[Ilaria]

My son's discharge papers instructed me to 'clean his circ site and apply vaseline' and to feed 'Enfamil, on demand'.
He's intact and was 100% brestfed. :eyesroll

With my dd, I was in the hospital for a total of 16 hours and she was never out of my site.

[Sarah]

Katie- Your brother can and should sue that hospital. I know the name of a lawyer he can contact. He is the perfect age to sue because it usually needs to be done within the 3 years after he reaches 18.

He has a case and they will probably settle with him out of court. Even if his circumcision was consented- he can still sue- William Stowell did and won. William's circumcision was consented and NOT BOTCHED... this is about the fact that no one had a right to do that to him... not that the circumcision was somehow incorrectly done. They settled with him.


Love Sarah

[scheelimama]

ella-makes-3, check out this thread.
http://mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=160465&page=1&pp=20
I asked the same question a few months ago. My dh was very for circ. but has since come around w/gentle persuasion. I've yet to get him to read anything about it, but he's decided it's not worth the battle with me.

[loving-my-babies]

wow. this is why we never let Vicente out my sight. they wanted to take him away for 15 minutes to do the screenings but I refused. only in my presence and he had to be nursing for pain management. since we don't circ, he was with me, cosleeping and everything, for the whole 24 hours we were at the hospital. I just could not imagine trusting my newborn to someone other than dh! they came several times to "take him up to clean him up" yeah right, over my dead body! :LOL

i'm sorry they made mistakes with your records.. I request a copy at every visit to know exactly what's going on!

[loving-my-babies]

Thanks so much for all the advice and links. I did look at tha plastibell one, very briefly, and definately cannot bring myself to watch the video. Will wait until dh will watch it with me too. Can't imagine looking at it twice.
I am sure that after reading the information that dh will change his mind.

It is not natural for me to routinely circumcise as I am European.
However, I do know 2 men, one of them my Dad, who had to become circumcised recently. I am sure that although it was not painless, at least they got to have some sort of anesthetic?


yes, I recommend having him watch the video. oddly enough, all the people that I know that circ'ed their sons, have never actually seen one :scratch I find this odd because I would never let anyone touch ds without me there or at least seeing what they will do. I recommend all families that think of circ'ing, to watch a video. for sure, that will change their mind, good luck with your dh

[loving-my-babies]

Alisha.. what did your dh decide after all? did he see the videos?

[scheelimama]

Alisha.. what did your dh decide after all? did he see the videos?

He has not seen the video or any of the information that I have for him. But, he has decided that we will not circ., b/c he says, "it's not that big of a deal." I feel like right now, he has perhaps realized that circumcision in not a good thing, but it's too painful for him to completely face right now. Either that or he knows I'm pretty set against it and he's not going to change my mind, so there's no sense in worrying about it. :) Whatever works!

[Shellie]

Ugh, this is so true! With my youngest, we were the "weird" parents on the floor at the time. We didn't let anyone touch him without one of us *right* there holding him. We didn't let them bathe him. We refused the eye ointment, Hep B, circ, etc. We learned our lesson with our oldest--she was whisked away, scrubbed down, put through all sorts of unnecessary procedures and since I didn't want her bottlefed, they TUBE-fed her for 12 hours before "allowing" me to nurse her. Never again!