For those of you who gave birth in the hospital...

[fourlittlebirds]

I do so much research into the absurdities of modern obstetrics that sometimes I wonder how skewed my perspective is, in terms of seeing hospitals as places where women and children are often harmed.

What was your experience like?

[Elphaba]

i am one of the few who is pretty happy with their hospital birth. i was able to use the midwifery team throughout my pregnancy and even had my favorite one on duty for MOST of my labor.
they let me skip the GTT and were pretty dismissive of the triple screen, as i am. they encouraged me to move around, gave me a rocker, a birthing ball and access to the shower. i vomited uncontrollably, so they allowed me to try to keep fluids down orally for quite a while, probably about 12-13 hours before encouraging IV fluids, which i requested since i was very weak. i only had a few internal exams, all of which i requested since i felt like i was working my a$$ off and HAD to be complete! which of course i wasn't. :o
after 17 hours i was exhausted and weak and opted for the epidural, and the midwife told me that she would check and see who was on call to give them, and if it was "the good one" she would recommend it for me! kind of scary to think there's a "bad" one, huh?
she sat with me and talked to me and was very supportive. if i got pregnant again while we were still living here, i would use them again.
oh, i showed up after 3-4 hours of labor convinced i was in transition since i was vomiting and insane, and was only 1-2 cm, and they said if i wanted to stay, that was fine. i ended up laboring for 21 hours total, and never once was i rushed, offered pitocin or AROM or threatened with a c/s. they told me they had one woman come in on a friday afternoon and she didn't give birth until sunday morning. these women have patience.:D

[Britt]

I had three different hospitals births with three different midwifery groups, and I was very, very happy with two of the births. The third was fine but not great. Having an excellent midwife who was ready to advocate for me made a HUGE difference. I was also very clear on what I wanted, and pushed to get my way. Very few attempts at intervention. Dh wouldn't take no for an answer when the hospital pushed against our wishes.

That said, depending on how everything works out (where we live, etc.), I'm thinking we'll do a homebirth next time. If we can have all the joy of my last births without needing to pour so much energy into setting boundaries, why not?

[peggy]

I had all six of my babies in the hospital and was very pleased with the outcomes. I found the more I learned and advocated for myself and my baby the better the experience was. :)

peggy

[Kim]

I was also very happy with my hospital birth, however, I was home in a birthing tub right up until it was time to push. In fact, I was pushing at home, in the backseat of my doula's Ford Explorer, and on a gurney as they brought me up to the birthing room. ;)

The midwife was there for the entire two hours of pushing and was extremely supportive. The only downfall was the d@mn fetal monitoring. At least they did it intermittently, but, it was sooooo annoying. BTW, the babes heart rate was fabulous the entire time. It was just "hospital policy".

[mrzmeg]

Tristan was born in a hospital this past Friday and the experience was really good. I labored at home for about 15 hours (we had planned a homebirth), but became really exhausted and dehydrated (I had had about 10 hours of sleep in the previous 48 hrs). My MW explained that it would get worse before it got better and that my physical condition would lengthen the labor (I was 4 cm dialated, only 2 cm more than 15 hours before), so I elected to go to the hospital. I was already in "Laborland" when we arrived there and had a dose of Nubain to try to get some sleep. It relaxed me---a lot---and before I knew it my body was pushing. Most of the experience is pretty blurry...except the pushing part :) . Tristan was born four hours after I arrived at the hospital. We went home when he was about 12 hours old.
I think the key reasons our experience was good was because I stayed at home for as long as I did, our midwife was super-holistic and very supportive, and we went back home so quickly.
I think that I would like to try for a homebirth again with the next baby, but looking back on this experience, I am very satisfied with this birth.

[lilyka]

My hospital birth was such a mess right from the start that is hard to say if my care was appropriate and if my care contributed to dd's and my poor outcome. She was born six weeks early after several successful attempts to stop labor but this time I didn't act quick enough. Midwife was willing to keep us in labor for 5 days even though my water broke and sat at the foot of my bed making sure no one stuck thier fingers in me. Unfortunately she was born in a few short hours and had to go to the NICU anyway. And if the preterm thing wasn't enough she also had her cord wraed tightly around her neck several time and they had to cut it before she was all the way out (because she couldn't move any further and her neck was already starting to bruise from the tightness). In the end we bothsuffered emotional trauma from the birth and the rather unessecary NICU stay but was that because of the care I recieved or just the stress from the situation. Who knows.

[LiamnEmma]

I think it depends on what part of the care you're talking about. My ds' birth was a bit of an ordeal for us all, but I felt my ob was great, and she was my ob for dd's birth as well. OTOH, I couldn't stand the night nurses for either birth, I thought their care was VERY inappropriate although it didn't cause any lasting harm to me or my babies. I can see, however, how it could easily have harmed other dyads by interrupting and/or completely stopping the nursing relationship. I didn't vote because I don't want to to skew the results based on which part of the care you mean.

[mamabain]

i don't think my baby or i were harmed in any way but i am not sure if the care we received was appropriate.

i was induced due to high blood pressure with p-gel. labor started almost immediately but due to high blood pressure i wasn't allowed to sit or stand or walk or anything except be on the bed. i had a fetal monitor and contraction monitor as well as a blood pressure cuff on most of the time.

i don't know whether i should have been allowed to walk around or not. they did let me squat and do hands and knees for pushing.

i was able to have my dd without any medications (so glad i didn't need pitocin or epidural) in 14 hours, so i guess that is not bad.
overall i was happy with my care. i used a midwife for care provider and my nurses were all awesome.

[familykiss]

I voted that care was inappropriate resulting in harm.

I had an ob/gyn whom i don't think ever looked me in the eyes once thru any of my appts. I thought I had lucked out with him as most people in our area only get a GP for prenatal care.

I was induced at 2 weeks passed due date, which was not probably accurate anyways because of irregular cycles. The induction led to very strong back labour and contractions that began at 20-40 seconds apart.

I laboured without drugs, went from 1-10 cms in under 45mins. I was weak, tired and pushing with ineffective contractions as they were brief but closely spaced. I ended up having an episiotomy, tore past that to my rectum and delivered my son by vaccum. He was stressed, low heart rate, and had swallowed meconium.

I could not walk and hardly felt prepared to mother my son. I was kind of ignorant about just what had happened to me and struggled thru with the help of my husband. At the time it was beautiful, inspiring and filled me with great joy - however things are gonna be different this time!!

whooo! sorry that was long!!

[mama2m&m]

I felt that I received great care during the birth of my dd, except for the epis. I ended up with. I was nearing transition when I got to the hospital and the sweet nurses tried to encourage me to forego the epid. and I wish I had listened. But they were great except for laughing at me which probably wouldn't have bothered someone else but I have past issues with that and it really made me angry.

The hospital stay itself left some to be desired. We had b/f problems and no one to help us. In fact one nurse was so bad that I thought I was harming my dd and she got multiple heel sticks to check her glucose :( She's my first birth so next time, if there is one, I'll know better.

Overall, I say it was a pretty awesome experience. I think a homebirth would be great too but if get pg and have another hospital birth I'll know more what to expect.

[fourlittlebirds]

Well, here is where the subjectiveness of it comes in. I mean, it can't help but by subjective! I personally would regard an episiotomy, insensitive caretakers, and torturing the newborn as harm. :( (I'm sorry that stuff had to happen, and glad that you were able to feel so good about the birth regardless.)

You know, I never appreciate it when people laugh at me. It's condescending, isn't it, and very subtly reinforces their position of power over you. That is not a way to treat a birthing woman. But I think you're right, I think some people are less likely to be deeply bothered by such a thing. Me, I would be sitting there stewing about it, and one doesn't want to be wasting one's energy on stewing while trying to give birth. ;)

I do think, though, that there is this weird kind of disrespect that comes from many care providers toward their clients, and that it is WAY inappropriate, and sometimes harmful (because the woman's emotional state affects her body and therefore can hinder the labor.) Maybe it is because they see so much of the same thing, every day, that they have become somewhat cut-off emotionally. One time while watching Maternity Ward, there was this women having a really hard time with the contractions, whimpering in sort of a poor southern accent ("oh lawdy", that sort of thing,) and one of the nurses was SMIRKING at her! I couldn't believe it!

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant. ;) Carry on, and thank you everyone for your responses so far!

[mama2m&m]

Hi sweetwater, I could relate to some of what you said. I guess it is rather subjective in that I can think of how it could have been a better experience, but in my mind I was comparing my experience to others who've had a terribly horrific experience so mine didn't seem so bad. Plus, I had waited years for this so I tend to gloss over some of the negative stuff. Lastly, at the time I didn't know any different as I didn't discover all this wonderful natural stuff until after my baby was born.

As for the laughing, what they found humourous was that I was a textbook example of transition. I mean, you could have predicted my station with almost 100% accuracy according to a book on transition. So it wasn't that they were laughing at me as a mean sort of joke (i.e. what a baby) I guess. But as you can see, over 18 mos. later, this is what I remember.

I think when I read your question I interpreted the word harm to be some short of medical problem but I agree in that the three main negative things that happened to me were harmful. Especially that hateful night nurse that heel pricked my newborn.

But some positive things I liked about my hospital birth (please don't laugh because they're somewhat corny): the nice warm blankets, the view of Baltimore City from my window, lunch brought to me and the other "caretaking" without feeling guilty. I just loved the fact that peopel were pouring me glasses of water all day long and it was nice and cold :) But most importantly, watching the the head of my daughter descend the birth canal and then appear in this world, all of which I could see in a strategically placed mirror. It was THE most beautiful thing in the whole world I have ever experienced.

And I might say there's nothing like the relief from pain after an epidural. I wish I would have put more stock into a natural birth because before they laughed at me the nurses tried to encourage me to do without. I was not at a point of managing my pain when we arrived so I couldn't even consider it anymore which makes me a little sad now. Of course, the nurses may not have been sincere and perhaps wanted to watch me suffer??? ;) Just kidding.

I agree with you though about the the labor personnel becoming immune to the whole thing. I can't imagine childbirth ever being so routine, but I guess when you work in it day after day for hours on end, one endless stream of laboring women it could happen. Interesting thought.

[AmyB]

I've posted here before that I was totally taken aback by how inappropriate my hospital care was. Most of the nurses and doctors seemed to have no knowledge at all of how to take care of a laboring woman. Several times I got misleading or downright false information about what was happening.

When I felt like pushing one nurse insisted that I was not dilated far enough and yelled at me not to push. I later found out that not only was I dilated to 10cm (nobody had bothered to check) but that my sister's baby was born without any problem when she was dilated to 6cm.

My baby was born by forceps delivery and I needed stitches. I strongly believe that if the nurses and doctors had had a clue the baby would have just been born peacefully without all the huge evergency fuss. I would not have been injured and my mom would not have been out in the hallway crying when the baby was born.

The hospital people, of course, thought that they had saved my baby's life and I should be grateful to them for their incompetence.

--AmyB

[mama2jonah]

I voted that I recieved inappropriate care and was harmed as a result. I had so many painful vaginal exams that I thought were unnecessary, that I felt violated. I was augmented with pitocen because of a long pushing stage (3 hrs). My son's cord was cut too soon, they took him away for 20 minutes, and I hemorraged due to the pitocen and lack of contact with my baby. I was given methargine for the bleeding, and i had an allergic reaction. I was overhydrated with the IV and got water poisoning. I was so bloated that I looked deformed. I couldn't walk because of the blood loss. I didn't bond with my son like I could have because of the separation and lack of skin to skin contact. When I finally got home, I just felt a huge weight lift off me and I cried my eyes out.

I know birth is meant to be so much different because I had my second son at home with barely any assistance from my midwife. He was born into my hands in a tub of warm water. He was so relaxed he didn't even make a sound. It was all so instinctual and beautiful. Intervention is simply neither necessary or helpful during a normal healthy birth.

And by the way, I recieved all the after birth perks normally associated with hospital birth as well: The midwife cleaned up after the birth, my mom cooked a wonderful meal for us all and made sure my glass was always full. My midwife didn't leave until the house was back to normal and she was sure my son and I were doing fine. She even gave me pain relief in the form of herbs and homeopathy, which worked very well. I would never do it any other way!

[Starfire]

Both my sister had horable expeireinces. r so I think. The nurses would come in and flip the baby on its side and then ask if we knew the baby would die if it slept with the mom, and it will die from drinking the colostrum milk, and just horable.

My yongest suster had her last one at home because she did not want to go through that again.

For me with my first son I had a great OB Doc. I told him I did not want the nurses to touch my baby, that my mom could wash him, wrigh him, and do what every else need to be done. And that I wanted to go home as soon as I felt I could.
He really respected my birth plan. The nurses got mad at him for overing their power. I do not think he minded cause it was the 3rd to last baby he dilivered, and he has been my doc. sinse I was 5.

For the one I am due in April with I plan to have at home because I have not found a Midwife, Doctor, or any one who is willing to stand up for me like he did in a hospitol setting. I am having my Aunt (who is a home midwife) train my partnet in so she doesn't do it alone. She lives 40minutes away and my first son came in 1 hour and 40 minutes, and every one says the second normally comes faster!

[yogamama]

I had a hospital birth with a midwife and it was a good experience. My husband is a nurse, and with his medical background we preferred not to have a homebirth and I was open to a hospital delivery. The only bad part for me was DRIVING to the hospital - that is reason enough to plan a homebirth.

[MysticHealerMom]

snip - felt weird...

[GB's Mom]

We tell everyone that we have two stories 1) a wonderful story of the birth of our son 2) a horrible story of how the hospital really tried to interfere with the birth.

Our nurse who we were told was the "natural childbirth friendly" nurse on staff at the time, kept cornering my parents and saying that she could have meds in me in a matter of minutes. And that "her husband may want her to have a natural childbirth, but if she wants medication, I'll give it to her." My dh KNEW that I would ask for meds during transition and I threatened his life if he let me have them! She asked me several times if I wanted them and even though I was telling dh I did, I always told her I didn't. Thankfully, we had a fantastic midwife who really helped keep things calm.

Also, she got mad that I wouldn't let her check me. My water was broken, I was GBS+ and only wanted my mw to check me as little as possible (three times during the 18 hr labor). She couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her do it. BTW, her fingers were twice the size of my mw's so you know there would be a difference!

She wouldn't read our birth plan and expected me to just explain what we wanted. We signed a million waivers; they weren't going to let me use my birth ball, but we argued so much and made them give us a waiver. They taped my arm with the IV so much that when the night nurse pulled off the tape, after I'd been in and out of the shower all day, it not only pulled all of the hair off, but it actually scabbed and was literally more painful than the birth!

We didn't want them to wash the baby, but at midnight (he was born at 5:38 pm) they came in, woke us up and insisted that they wash him. We were so exhausted after being up for two days that we agreed and dh and I got up to help. It was the first time ds cried and it was awful.

Also, because ds was 9 lbs/2 oz they test for gestational diabetes (in babies over 8 1/2 lbs). But instead of letting me nurse him for a while first, they scared us into thinking he could be sick (he was soooo healthy) and we let them prick his foot. His score was low since we hadn't nursed much. So they pricked his foot a couple hours later. By then we had nursed and it was right on target. THEN, they woke us up at 3:00 am to prick his foot AGAIN!!!! DH went balistic, screamed at the nurse and that was the last time we were bothered that night. We left the next morning almost immediately.

The nurse that wheeled us out told us rudely that maybe we should consider a home birth next time (of course we are!) Then, when we put ds in the carseat the nurse shook the seat and pulled on the straps so voilently to show us that they were too loose. I yelled at her to stop and pushed her out of the way to get my baby out of the seat while they fixed the carseat. You mamas know how protective you are of your babies, especially less than 24 hrs after the birth. It was all I could do not to strangle her.

SO . . . there is the short version, although it doesn't seem so short now. Once I get started, I just can't stop.

*edited to add, that when I hit 5 cm, I got a little break after about an hour of one one top of each other hard contractions. DH had sent my parents for food. When the nurse saw that I was about to eat told me that once you hit 5 cm your STOMACH SHUTS DOWN!!!! So I shouldn't eat the chicken sandwich, but she would get me a popcicle. Well, I ate the chicken sandwich, and we frequently enjoy a good laugh about her ignorance!

Tori

[MysticHealerMom]

your stomach shuts down? where do they get that stuff??

[GB's Mom]

I think they just assume that no one takes responsibility for their pregnancy and birth so they can say whatever they want to be in control and have things go their way. It's so aggravating, but also comical. I mean, what an ignorant comment!

[AmandasMom]

I had an emergency CS. I feel like all my care up to and during the CS was fine and appropriate.

Some complaints:

The epidural felt like someone was putting a pipe cleaner down my back.

I felt humiliated in the OR when it took like 6 people to haul my butt from 1 table to the OR table.

I was so scared being cut open that I don't remember my daughter being born:(

The didn't have a vegetarian menu, and gave me funny looks when they saw "vegetarian" scribbled on my chart. They constantly brought me jello and other non-veggie stuff thinking it was vegetarian. How can a hospital not have healthy food? No wonder so many people think heart disease as normal @!!!!!

The bitch nurses kept pumping the damn fluids in me, even though I was fine. My legs swelled up so bad that I could NOT WALK and yet they kept pumping that shit in me. I think they did it because I kept telling them NO MORE TAKE IT OUT. My doctor finally took it out and said "yeah, you may have had too much". I was scared at the work my poor kidneys had to do because of the amount of fluid they kept pumping in me. One nurse would turn up the drip if it was getting near the end of her shift so I would have a new bag for the new shift. Never ever again, NEVER will I allow this!!!!

Other then the birth of my daughter, the best part of the "hospital experience" was the catathor! (sp?). After months of sever back pain (dd never flipped or turned) and having to pee every few mins night and day, being able to lay in bed and never have the urge to get up and go pee was BLISS!

:hippie

[applejuice]

'

[Leslie in MD]

Girls, I think we need to be reminded of one important thing. We have to look objectively at the care we received in the hospital because we don't KNOW if a home birth would have been any better. Now, There are some things that we realize could have gone more smoothly, like how particular people treated us and our personal comfort level (and any ignorance we may have had to deal with), but the birth itself may have gone just as badly at home. That said, I had two hospital births and both were bad in different ways. My first son was born in Japan. I had a very caring doctor with 30 years of birthing experience, but he couldn't speak any English! He saw me throughout my pregnancy and I learned to really like him - he was kind, nurturing and gentle and we just did our best to communicate with my poor Japanese. Anyway, because I trusted him, my husband and I allowed him to induce me 3 weeks early - probalby a bad decision, but it was our first baby and we were far from home....It was a very tough birth, but during it and afterwards, the entire staff treated me like a queen and did their best to take care of all my injured parts, which were horrible (couldn't walk for about 3 weeks!) They also went out of their way to help me nurse. Now, the first son ended up weighing 7 1/2 pounds 3 weeks early. The second baby was born in America and was induced 10 days early and second son weighed 10 lbs. 3 ozs. This made me feel like maybe my Japanese doctor was right in inducing me 3 weeks early the first time! Anyway, this birth went MUCH worse than the first time. almost 4 hours of pushing, lots of tearing, baby's collar bone was broken, they thought he had nerve damage, used tremendous suction.... The hospital staff sucked; the OB on duty from my practice really sucked and the whole experience was bad. I felt like everyobe just started doing stuff to me to hurt me. My husband feels like he delivered the baby because they left us in the room alone for so much of my labor. Anyway, one thing I try to tell myself is that a home birth may not have gone well either since my son was so monstrous! (I am a petite 5 ft. 3, 115 pound woman). Anyway, I live in another state now and, because of the size of my last baby, I am opting for another hospital birth BUT I'm going for the c-section this time. Just couldn't put myself in that place of vulnerability again. As an experienced mother, I'm hoping that I won't let anyone run over me this time...sigh.... Baby is due for c-section in 5 days! wish me luck! Hope this helps someone. Sorry so long. The venting did me good!
Leslie in MD

[applejuice]

A

[RainCityMama]

I personally had a bad hospital experience and would never set foot in a hospital again to birth a baby unless it was a matter of life or death - I feel that the act of simply going to a hospital is intervention.

I don't think that hospital births have improved in general over the last few decades - especially after having done extensive research on the rise in unecessary interventions from fetal monitoring (which has not been shown to improve outcome but DOES increase substantially the risk of C-section), Epdiurals (I believe the latests study shows that 90% of women who give birth in hospital have one), and unecessary C-section (In the 1970's the C-section rate was 6%, now we are at almost 40%).

So my question is: when did womens biological make- up break down to such that we are unable to birth naturally?
My answer: It has nothing to do with us as life givers it is all about money and malpractice- (aka money).

I think we as women are the only ones that can change the current climate by educating ourselves FULLY and demanding to be in charge of our birth experiences - we are after all the consumers here, our health care providers are working for US.

[MysticHealerMom]

when they stopped using twilightsleep (I think that's what it's called) during labor, that was an improvement.

the man who invented the fetal monitor said that he didn't think it should be used routinely because it wasn't accurate enough for normal births and gave false positives of fetal distress.

the guys who invented the forceps were hailed because now the doc could pull the baby out instead of having to wait for the mother to push. it gave them all sorts of control over labor, and that with twilightsleep made it so women didn't even have to be there, in a sense.

the US has one of the worst rates of infant and maternal motality and morbidity (injuries) in the world, and darn bad for industralized countries. but, data can be shown to suit the presenters, and usually it's stated that we're doing well.

out of the top 15 industralized nations, we rank about 10th.

[applejuice]

I

[blueberry]

Most of my friends had done homebirths, so I was a bit apprehensive about delivering in a hospital, but we did so for insurance purposes.

My experience wasn't horrible by any means, but it wasn't great either. Here it is:

I started leaking fluid on a Monday and called my doctor; I had lost my mucus plug weeks earlier and had been fingertip dilated for about 3 weeks. I went in to see her and she did a litmus test, results inconclusive. Her advice was to go home, and if it got worse to call her again.

Wednesday evening in a spate of nesting I decided to buy some fabric at evil-but-opened-at-midnight Walmart. In the middle of Walmart, I felt more fluid leakage. Overnight I soaked a pad so called my Dr's office. Thursday morning I went in to see the NP. My Dr wasn't there that day. She did the litmus test and said 'you're definitely leaking fluid. this might have been going on for a few days. we have to get the baby out TODAY.". I immediately walked over to the hospital for induction, which I really really really didn't want to do. This was around 10:30 AM.

At around noon they started the Pitocin. I started having contractions immediately. I was hungry but they wouldn't let me eat so DH started the Great Ice Chip walk. The contractions were bearable for about 4 hours....they increased the drip every 20 minutes or so. At around 4/5, the contractions started coming at 60/90 seconds apart, then started doubling up. I was crying, shaking, clawing poor DH, but I really didn't want an epidural. I finally got to a point where I wasn't really breathing between contractions so I requested one finally. The nurse said 'well, let's see how dilated you are. if you're far enough along we won't bother". She checked.

2 frickin centimeters.

She called in the anesthesiologist. aFter 15 more minutes of coubled-up contractions (which felt like 3 hours) they gave me an epidural. They missed on the first attempt, and told me to NOT MOVE (right, when I have a mack truck driving through my abdomen. no problem.) Epidurals hurt like hell.

As soon as I got the epidural, I started shaking and shaking, then started vomiting. However, I felt no pain. I fell asleep for about 15 minutes. I felt pressure in my abdomen, I could feel the baby starting to move out, but couldn't feel any pain. Within 20 minutes I was dilated to 8. They realized that only my forebag had broken and I still had a full, intact bag. They ruptured it and meconium-stained fluid splashed all over the place. Ten minutes later I was at 10 and ready to push.


They paged the doctor on call. No response.

They did it again. No response. She'd left her pager in a patient's room.

I informedt he nurse that I was pushing. I didn't care if the doctor was there. I had a very calm, encouraging nurse which was great. She practically delivered the baby. The doctor got there for the last 2 pushed with some doctors from NICU to suction DS's air passages because of the meconium.

I tore in 3 places. Not fun.

However, start to finish, my entire labor lasted 9 hours. I was really angry at the pitocin thing....I'm convinced that I needed to epidural because the pit contractions were so strong that my body didn't have any time to recover between contractions in order to dilate.

I stayed in the hospital for another 2 days. The food was OK, I had my own room (my hospital doesn't have any sharing rooms in recovery, which is great) and nurses would bring me juice/food whenever I wanted it. I had a great nurse who helped me with the ton of bleeding I experienced for hours afterward......she brought me countless pads and spray numbing agent.

I don't recommend a hospital birth, but it really wasn't that awful an experience. I immediately thought that I would go through it again to have another child, but I'm going to try to have a midwife present at the next delivery if I opt to not do a homebirth (which I am considering).

[WickidaWitch]

I had 2 good experiences at the hospital with no problems at all.:D

[elyen]

Water broke at home arougd 10pm with zero contractions. My midwife wanted to admit me and start the antibiotics since I had just tested positive for GBS, per hospital policy. (Now that I know more about GBS, I'll try to do more during this pregnancy to ensure that I'm GBS-.)

Despite lots of walking and other efforts, my contractions didn't start on their own, and I got pitocin around 11am. It wasn't bad for the first 5-6 hours. My midwife checked on me frequently to see if I needed anything. I could eat and drink whatever. My husband was AWESOME. I was on the fetal monitor, but often had it disconnected until the L&D nurse came in. Some L&D nurses were ok, others were blah.

My transition was pretty painful... I went from 3 to 9 cm in 1 hour - ouch! But my midwife was sooo encouraging and never pushed an epidural on me. She helped me and dh get into the shower for that last 1 cm.

I pushed for 26 minutes and my 6 lb 4 oz, healthy son was born. The L&D nurse who was delivery was great, and my midwife was awesome too. They encouraged me to use various positions, set up mirrors and helped dh set up the video camera. She did lots of perineal massage, and I had only a small tear.

They were fine with not doing the usual hospital routine on baby: eyedrops, vitamin K shot, bath. My son was never without me or my husband the whole time.

Postpartum stay was so-so. We were at a university hospital, so there was such a parade of pediatric residents and attendings, in addition to the well baby and postpartum nurses and visitors that we didn't get as much rest as we'd hoped.

Despite the shortcomings, I'm looking forward to working with the same midwifery practice for this pregnancy (due ~ late Sep).

To conclude, I would NOT have a hospital birth if I had an OB. So many of my friends who had an OB were told not to push until the OB arrived... sometimes had to wait 30+ minutes after they felt the need to push! That's excruciating, even if you DO have an epidural! Since the L&D nurses were hot/cold, I loved that my midwife checked in on me every 30 minutes or so during labor and never left us after transition began. I also had wonderful prenatal care... each appointment lasted at least 1 hour and I never felt rushed or as if my questions went unanswered. How many OB patients can say that?

[MelMel]

quote"I think they just assume that no one takes responsibility for their pregnancy and birth so they can say whatever they want to be in control and have things go their way. It's so aggravating, but also comical. I mean, what an ignorant comment!"

Yes! I agree...they made me feel like I was a 4 year old, spoke very rudely and condescending to me, and acted as if things I mentioned were ridiculous 'hep lock' 'shower' 'can I get out of bed'

I had a healthy, problem free pregnancy, and was hydrated and healthy laboring at home for 30+ hours, I was tired and n pain, but happy and positive...till they admitted me and took my control away....

nothing damaging happened to me or my girl as a result. They tried to 'guilt' me into more interventions, saying my movements may keep oxygen from going to my baby...better get internal monitors, epidural, etc...so I wouldnt be able to move, or WANT too...

I envy and respect immensely women who are able and inclined to homebirth...sadly, it isnt an option for me.

:sinister :sinister :sinister :sinister

[tinyshoes]

...and jeepers, at 8 weeks post-partum, I wrote my male OB a big ol' thank you card!

But I started to feel 'harmed' when month after month, my episiotomy scar hurt. And the inappropriate care was kind-of good in my favor--we were COMPLETELY IGNORED by the nurses.

My newborn's butt was harmed because we had NO WIPES in our plastic bassinet drawer, so dh used paper towels from the bathroom, moistened with water. Dd's butt was totally red and raw. Nice. And she had the same blanket and outfit for 3 days, 'till the discharge nurse said, oh, well, you can have NEW ones! (But we were so ignored, which was 'good', so babe never got fresh laundry.)

Nurses are supposed to help you change your lochia pad? Bring you water to drink? 1 nurse on 1 nite brought me a ice-filled glove for my aching, stitched-filled crotch, and that was it.

Now, concidering that most people think hospitals are 'the greatest!' and without question 'the place to go to have a baby,' I'd have to respectfully disagree with their opinions of wonder and awe.

I also had quite an attitude coming at me from the anesthesiologist who was going to 'fix' my epidural, and because of hospital policy, I had to wait hours 'till another doc could come and redo my epi. (I think women who endure hospital birth AND pit contractions WITHOUT meds are much more crazy than homebirthing mamas!)

[oceanbaby]

I had a very good experience, but was careful to select the only doctor in my very big city who was a sole practitioner (not with a huge, rushed practice) and very supportive of natural birth. Without him, I believe I would have ended up with a c-section due to some extenuating circumstances (that had nothing to do with the hospital). But I had a completely natural birth, with no pressure or hassles from anyone. I even lucked into getting one of the rooms with a tub, in which I spent the majorit of my labor. I will say that if dh and I had not been so educated and prepared, and had had a 'regular' doctor, that it could have been a real bummer.

I had mixed feelings about the following two days that I was there. On one hand, I was so incredibly sore and bleeding so much that I was entirely grateful to have someone waiting on me and cleaning up the constant bloody mess. But, I was extremely annoyed that they woke both me and the baby up every 2 hours to take blood pressure, temperature, etc. And they tried to take ds for his heel prick at 4am, and I had to insist that they wait until morning so dh could go with him, but not have to be woken up. And some of the nurses were really bitchy and annoying, but then some were great.

I am considering a homebirth next time, but need to get more info about what follow up support is provided. I really could not deal with the mess if it is anything like it was last time - changing blood soaked sheets every few hours, puddles on the floor every time I stood up, puddles in the bathroom, etc. (Sorry to be so graphic.)

And even though I absolutely know that homebirth is safer than hospital birth, there is still a part of me that feels vulnerable not being in a hospital. It's like being afraid of flying but not of driving, even though you are so much more likely to be hurt driving.

[madrone]

I had a wonderful hospital birthing experience.
But the only reason is because of very strong, supportive friends.

I decided that I couldn't deal with the hospital lights and was bringing a lamp. My friends just hid it in the other things to bring it in the hospital. Once we were all in the room, the nurse came in, handed me a gown, and said she would be back in a few minutes to examine me to see if I needed to stay or go home. We all looked at the floor. And then my best friend spoke up and said, "She's not wearing the gown and you're not examing her." So there was a bit of discussion about they have to do the exam in order to admit me. We decided I was not being admitted at that time but would occupy the room since I would be admitted some time that day (I think the yoga mats that we had placed on the floors and the lamp might have had something to do with them letting us stay in the room). The nurse left and said she would return in an hour or so. We did yoga, decided that DH needed to sleep, and my 2 friends and I left for a walk. When we came back a few hours later, they were really unhappy. We had been there for probably 4 hours and they hadn't examined me nor admitted me! I was obviously very close to having the baby, so they admitted me without the exam. They ended up deciding that I just wasn't going to do what they wanted and gave up. And were just in shock that I (being very tiny) gave birth to a 9 lb 12 oz baby without anything and only a tiny tear. They never did anything because of my DH and friends.

[kmp]

I had a good hospital birth and am glad for interventions like ultra sound, pictocin and fetal monitoring, cause without those I probably would not have birthed a live baby.

Despite taking a full weekend (8hrs each day) of childbirth education and having a midwifery team of three and complaining about swelling etc my son was without any amniotic fluid at all - something that never came up in any of the endless discussions about things that can happen when you're pregnant. We heard about your water breaking early and about large amounts of leaking fluid, but I never had large amounts of leaking fluid. I never had wet underwear etc. We have no idea how long my son was without any amniotic fluid but I do know for weeks there were panicked movements. The midwives just commented on how helathy and active the babe must be. It was at my request that I had an ultrasound on my due date, cause I just couldn't shake the feeling something was up. Something was.

My son was pretty distressed by the time I was induced and am glad that I was. Incidentally, my midwives, after I told them how hard the labour was said it would have been the hard and fast at home with them - that pictocin only gets you to labour and after that what follows is your natural labour pattern. My next would come just as hard and fast next time, induction or not.

Maybe because I was a midwifery patient and I lucked out with a nurse who has worked with midwives I had no problem getting up, walking around, being offered food - despite being hooked up to an I.V.. All the delivery rooms in the hospital I was at had birthing tubs with great jets and our nurse advoctaed with the O.B. my care was transferred to (midwives here have to transfer care when interventions are done, but can stay as labour support) to take myself and my babe off the monitors to have 20 minutes in the tub. It was just what I needed.

Every conceivable position was recommended - no insistance on staying on my back. Actually they recommended against it.

Because the labour happened so quickly and our midwife told us to call her at 5 centimeters, just as we would if we were at home, she actually missed the birth by a few minutes. There was no time for checking dilation.

The greatest part about the birth was having care transferred right back to my midwife, once my son was given the ok and heading home an hour after his birth. Stopping only to pick up burgers and shakes.

The after care, cause it was my midwifery team, was great. Home visits on the first, third, fifth and seventh day. Nursing help, even a midnight visit cause my partner and I were freaked about something. That's where I think my hospital experience would have taken a nose dive. I think hospitals and interventions are there for good reason, and midwives just aren't qualified for anything other than "normal" - whatever that means. But I wouldn't expect a hospital to be able to help me with anything outside of a crisis. Once my son was born the crisis was over and I then needed the people best trained for aftercare and normal healthy new mom and babe needs - my midwives.

If there was going to be a next time (there isn't) I would love to combine the care again.

[Pynki]

I recieved appropriate care, but ds was still harmed.. Not terribly, but he was born with a briken collar bone and he did have bruises on his head from the forcepts delivery...

He was very healthy, weighted more when we left the hospital than when he was born, but i still am not comfortable with the fact he had a broken collar bone..

My 1st ds was a c/s and if it would have prevented y baby suffereing i would have had a nother one.. Who's to say?

So i think i had appropriate care, i still think he was damaged as a part of it..


Warm Squishy Feelings..

DYan
:thumb

[busybusymomma]

I voted that my care was inappropriate and brought harm. I consider the horrible care from my nurse, the lack of care from my OB and the episiotomy 'harm'.

I was induced at 38 weeks due to supposed PIH (my bp was 130/80 when I was up and around and much lower when I rested). Ha. I was 3cm 80% effaced, so luckily my body was ready. I labored for quite awhile before I got past 4cm... then it got really bad and I was in horrible pain. I went from 4-10cm in an hour! I was crying my head off because I was expected to labor in my bed with the monitors on my belly and a painful IV (I have small veins) in my wrist (the only vein they could find). SO, I just kept going to the bathroom (it felt much better on the toilet).

Instead of checking me, the nurse told my mom within my hearing that it would be suppertime at least. This was at 1ish. Can you imagine?! Anyway, she pushed me for an epidural. I told her no way. If I had gotten that epidural, I wouldn't have been able to push an hour later when it was time!!! :angry I did accept a shot of Nubain which made me horribly sick. They ended up sticking in an internal monitor too. :angry and used that as an excuse to say I couldn't push squatting (her heartrate went down during contractions, duh!) and made me push in the lithomy position. You know what that means, I got an episiotomy because "you'll tear anyway". TO THIS DAY, my episiotomy scar bothers me on days that I stand a lot etc. This time I'd rather tear... if I had to choose b/t the two. My labor was 8 hours from start of IV to finish and only the last three hours were very painful despite the Pitocin.

My pp care was okay... I had my own room... but they kept offering to take dd away (why?) and kept checking my bp and my episiotomy and making comments like "Oh! You don't have hemmorhoids!" Whatever... I was so glad to go home at 17 hrs pp.

I feel that my birth was managed too much and I thank God that I had the sense to refuse the epidural. If I hadn't there's really not telling what might have happened...

[chicklet]

I had 2 hospital births - the first was an induction after my water broke and labor didn't start. After 2 days; cervadil, 5 hrs total labor, awful & unnescessary episiotomy (for which I have permanent psysical and emotional scars) for a 6lb, 6oz baby, and to be honest - WONDERFUL OB care from the nursing staff.

2nd birth, 4cm-delivery time spent at the hospital (1 1/2hrs), natural tear (yea!) Hated that darned IV, but great nurses.

Now for the awful part, the nursing care for my poor little ds was horrendous. They were too busy feeding the formula babies to bring my screaming, hungry baby to me so he SCREAMED the entire hospital stay that he wasn't in my arms (they don't have full time rooming-in) The second night I stayed awake the entire night holding him and fending off the nurses just so he wouldn't cry.

Next time a homebirth for me.

[traci5489]

I must just be really lucky or something, because I have had 2 hospital births (both by c-section) and I felt I had wonderful care - as a matter of fact with my first child the c-section saved his life and the wonderful care my ob gave me saved mine or at least gave me the opportunity to have more children and not a hyst. (I had some pretty severe bleeding problems). I however, had a doctor I trusted and she respected me and my decisions about my births and she was the doctor who attended to me at both births and the nursing staff was caring and attentive to me and my children.

[Plaid]

My hospital birth was not only appropriate, but necessary. I'd wanted a homebirth, but since our insurance would not cover it and dh was opposed, I educated myself really well and did the hospital thing.
I did have to fight my OB to avoid induction since I was 16 days past my edd.
After 29 hrs of drug-free back labor, 5 hrs pushing, I needed a c-section. I was so dissapointed & scared! Turns out I have a tennis-ball size fibroid that was probably blocking her progress. Fortunately, there was never any fetal distress. Nonetheless, I'd have been really freaked out if I was at home & had to be transported to the hospital. The hospital was surprisingly respectful of my choices. I'd taken Bradley classes, and one of the nurses had done so also, years ago. However, Clare had seizures the next day (not a result of the long labor, but possibly of the long pregnancy -- though there's no way to tell), and had to stay in the nursery. I was disappointed & distressed that the doctor insisted she be suplemented with formula due to her rising jaundice levels (she & i had a blood incompatability problem). The nursing staff was very supportive of my breastfeeding efforts though, and didn't push it when Clare refused the formula (she actually sucked on the bottle and let the yucky formula run out the corners of her mouth! smart baby). In the nursery they were big into pacifiers, though, which bothered me, but I decided to let it be -- I did not want the people who were caring for my dd to be frustrated that they couldn't comfort her the way they knew how. I feel lucky that she had a great sucking reflex and never any nipple confusion.

I know what you mean about being so involved in researching how things can go wrong in the hospital setting. I was very sure I didn't need the hospital -- we just couldn't afford a homebirth. But now I have a different perspective. And a healthy 21 lb baby!

[rlyates]

My 2nd was awful. My water broke at 11pm and i was at the hospital at 12:30am. Contractions weren't bad. i told the nurse that i was going to have the baby and that I needed to push and they said it was impossible- i hadn't been in labor that long. needless to say i told them i was having the baby without them and they checked and the baby was crowning. A doctor whom i did not know came in to attend the birth and wouldn't keep her hands off me. anyway, i ended up tearing upward, not to the rectum and then they refused to give me anything to numb it down there to stitch it up. i will not go back to that hospital. By the way they didn't think it was necessary to call my ob until i delivered.i delivered at 1:31am.

[mamallama]

My first baby was born in a hospital.

The birth was a horrible, unnecessary induction, but I'll take responsibility for that because I did consent. You know what they say about hindsight.

After the birth I was holding my baby and marvelling in her perfection. My partner had gone out to the waiting room to tell my folks, so the LDR nurse was the only other person in the room. She was feeling chatty and asked me where I was was from. I told her, and she asked me if I knew a woman from that town who was (very) recently murdered. Well, I did, and actually we had been friends. So instead of offering condolences, she asked my opinion on who I thought did it! I had just given birth! I was holding my newborn daughter, and the nurse wanted to talk about the details of my friends murder.

I wish I had reported her, but at the time I was in complete disbelief. The whole thing was totally surreal.

Same hospital, same baby, the breastfeeding support was worse than horrible. My baby latched on for the first time when she was 35 (thirty-five) days old--no thanks to any healthcare professional I encountered. The whole breastfeeding story is bad, but anti-climactic in light of the delivery room story.

My second baby was born in my bedroom. Unless lives are at stake, and I will have done the research (and obtained a second opinion) to determine if that indeed is the case, I will never birth in a hospital again.

--edited to clear up grammatical confusion

[phoebekate]

DD was born in a hospital birthing centre under midwife care, our ante-natal care was first rate and the birth could not have gone better, well I could have not torn, but given that I had a completely active intervention free labour (inc no internals) and delivered her standing up I figure it just happened that way. The tear was from sticky shoulders not the head so I shudder to think what would have happened if I had laboured on my back... I was very worried about going to hospital though and carefully chose the hospital with the lowest intervention rates I could and talked to them extensively about my concerns well in advance. The head midwife recommended a homebirth (bless her) but it wasn't really an option for us for a number of reasons so she made sure she was at DDs birth herself. We went home early and had about 8 home visits, some from midwives, some from an LC, which was fantastic cause breastfeeding was so much harder than the birth it wasn't funny.

[Drewsmom]

I admit that I haven't read all the threads, my back is killing me and I'm lucky to be able to sit at the computer for a few minutes. But I did want to say that I had a good experience in a hospital. However, I caveate that with the fact that I did a lot of research and I frankly also got really lucky with my labor nurse.

We lived a block away from one hospital which was known as having a 99% epi. rate and a high c-section/episiotomy rate as well. So needless to say, even though I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible we went to the slightly farther away women's center/hospital. My Hypnobirthing teacher was an active nurse there and the staff was very friendly with natural births and the Hypnobirthing philosophy as well as Lamaze/Bradley. They had a birthing tub as well and a birthing ball, birthing bar (that right there kind of told me a lot). It was a bit of a trade off since they were not a tertiary hospital though and if ds had needed any major tx we would've been separated. But I had had a healthy pregnancy and didn't expect any problems.

Next, I went in that morning for a non-stress test since I was a little overdue. I already knew I was in labor (initial stages) as they confirmed but I had a really crappy nurse who was more interested in "teaching" her student nurse than in what was comfortable or best for me. They offered to admit me and I said, "no thank you!" If she was going to be my nurse, no thanks. Plus I knew that once I was on their clock they'd still be more likely to give me pitocing to "even" out my labor (1st time baby) which I knew would eventually even out on its own.

After a full day of on and off labor my dh and I kicked my labor into high gear with some natural induction methods ;) and I went into active labor at 11pm. I had the night staff who I had been told were better (younger, more flexible to momma's needs). So I went in and they were AWESOME!!!! They completely respected every aspect of my birth plan and even a few other things that I wanted to mention but didn't like dimming the lights and talking quietly. They didn't require me to be monitored, even what their hospital policy stipulated, they checked me maybe three times all in all and that was b/c I started to feel like I was going to give up (I was at 8cms) they waited for as long as I needed in between pushing, no episiotomy. It was a great hospital experience. I would go back again for any subsequent kids but we've moved.

Anyway, it can be done but you have to do a lot of research and then I still think you have to cross your fingers or just be very vocal still if you don't like your labor nurse (switch them- why not you're the one that's paying for their services). Also, my dr. was very friendly to my birth philosophy which I made sure of on our first visit. My only major complaint was that he didn't know how to support my perineum (niether did the nurses, I had them do my own version of hot compresses...mmm felt soo goood) and I tore. I had always planned on delivering using the birthing bar or standing upright but my legs were too tired at the end and sitting even in an upright position still didn't help. But all in all it was awesome!

[oncewerewise]

With my first dd, I was too chicken to have a homebirth and I have an amazing doctor who is totally supportive of natural childbirth with no interventions. With my 2nd, I wanted to have a homebirth with my doctor but his insurance wouldn't cover that. I found a midwife in my area but they don't have hospital privileges locally. I was really looking forward to a homebirth but complications at 41 weeks took me into the hospital. Both experiences were good, the nurses and other hospital staff were very supportive of my decisions and I had an amazingly wonderful doula with me for both labours and births.

However, in my local hospital, the birthing rooms are private. You go into a room with a birthing bed/chair, your own huge washroom, tv, etc. And, you spend your entire stay in there and your baby stays with you. They even have a pull-out chair if you have someone staying with you. These are the regular rooms. When I watch television and see them still wheeling babies into nurseries I am amazed! Here in Ontario, we don't do that anymore. Although, I do know of other hospitals in the province that have ward rooms. You have your own birthing room but after the baby's APGAR, you go into a room with up to 3 other new moms and their newborns.

As impressed as I am with the local hospital, if I have more children, I am planning on having a homebirth.

Make Love, Not War

[mamarsupial]

i picked a), even though i believe my induction was to blame for dd being slightly distressed when she arrived. she was fine, so that is why i picked a. we will be birthing at the same hospital again, since we did have a good experience, but will try to avoid induction. i think women need to be educated as to their choices and have support. i think going with a midwife (certified nurse midwife) and having a doula made a huge difference for us. i have little doubt that i would have ended up with a c-section if i'd had an ob. in fact, the couples we know who saw ob-gyns versus midwives, seemed to have a higher chance of c-section and complications (which has been brought out in some studies). being an ap mama, i now know a LOT of moms who home birth. looking at the circle of pre-parenthood friends, a group diverse in its approach to parenting, here are the results of birthing with an ob versus cnm versus family practice:

OBs
1. complicated delivery, suction, baby in icu for 1 week
2. complicated delivery, emergency c-section, baby in icu for 1 week (ob came in twice, once to say 'push', once to say 'c-section!')
3. baby #1 complicated delivery, fetal monitoring, forceps, healthy baby
baby #2 complicated delivery, emergency c-section, healthy baby
4. uncomplicated delivery attended by an RN, NOT their ob*, healthy baby
*their ob came in twice, once to say 'push' and once to give sara an episiotomy, which she had asked NOT to have

CNMs
1. (us) complicated delivery, minor interventions, healthy baby
2. complicated delivery, healthy baby
3. uncomplicated delivery (in water), healthy baby
4. complicated delivery, healthy baby

Family Practice
1. labored at home with doula the went to the hospital, uncomplicated delivery, healthy baby

[wwhippetcrazy]

I voted A....although there are things I would change, but these were things of my doing, not the dr's or nurses....
Got to the hospital at 5 cm...but not real strong cont....so
after walking around a lot, having a shower (where my water broke) and trying to keep things moving, I got tired and decided to lay down, well I never got back up and never progressed passed 6cm in over 10hours....they tried pitocin (that I will never do again!!!) made the contrac. worse, but still nothing happened in like 6 hours....then I started getting sick and baby heartrate was going low occasionally....so we decided on going for a c-section....
As scared as I was about that and disappointed, my dr was there for my whole labor and I trusted him. So they assembled the team and low and behold there was a huge knot in dd cord that would have cut her off before she would have made it through the birth canal...so things happened for a reason...she knew she wasn't coming out that way...lol....I'm glad things happened that way...she may not be here otherwise.
I hope to have a vbac this time...and I have the same dr, so I'm pretty comfortable with him....mind you, no pitocin this time, that stuff was horrible!!

Jen
:)