[pageta]

Can you refuse to sign any and all consent forms? From what I've been told about the center where I will be giving birth, I'm not so worried about myself as I am about the baby. Nurses seem to think they can just do things without asking, and I fear that I will fail to decline a routine procedure I didn't know to object to in time to include it in my birth plan (not that a birth plan is a hardline solution).

If I must sign them, could I amend them to say that all procedures, regardless of how routine they are, must not performed until verbal consent has been obtained?

 

[arlecchina]

I dont know? but I would insist on written, not verbal. verbal is too easy to lie about.

 

[Kidzaplenty]

I know in a hospital receiving government funds, they can not refuse treatment, and you don't have to sign the consent forms. They will have to obtain verbal consent for each procedure. However in birthing centers and small private hospitals, I don't know.

If you do "have" to sign their routine consent form, you are allowed to mark on it. Read it carefully, and anywhere it states that you consent, you can mark it out and write in "I do not consent". Then you can sign their forms and they have written proof that you do not consent.

 

[Emilie]

Are you birthing at a center attatched to a hospital?

I would go for a walk thru NOW at the place you plan to birth. Ask questions and get a feel The nurses you meet may not be the nurses you are with.

I would hire a DOULA and have her to fight for my rights and wishes. Labor is not a time to be fighting IMO.