[saimeiyu]

... Ok, first off, I'm in the oh-so-fortunate position of being active duty military... which means I basically have no choice about where I'll be giving birth... It also means that the only midwives I'm allowed to see are affiliated/employed by the Army hospital over here (I live in Hawaii)... Now, to make all this even *better*, the most common way of referring to this particular hospital, at least among military folk is "Crippler" Hospital. Oh, joy.

Next comes the fact that unfortunately, I couldn't remember my LMP date because I really didn't care-- I wanted to use the conception date to get an EDD-- but the policy for one reason or another, at this hospital says you can't do that unless the ultrasound is more than two weeks off of the LMP EDD. More fun.

SO then earlier this week, they decided that I'm "over due" even though by conception dates, TODAY is my due date... So of course, since THEY think I'm overdue, I either have to go and get the NST's and AFI's done... Otherwise I get to spend 30 minutes being lectured by the OB's about how much I'm putting myself at risk by NOT doing the NST's and AFI's.... So I figured, what the heck, I know the baby's fine, I don't want to spend an hour every time I come in explaining that YES, I DO KNOW what i'm "risking" by not doing them, etc, etc, etc,...

Well, They did the NST-- everything is great, fine, and wonderful. they have a trainee (who had to be corrected a few times during this--- oh, yeah, that makes me confident) do the AFI, and I've got 7.5 cm-- ok, but not so great... I'm borderline and have to go in again in two days...
SO fast forward to today, again, NST is great, fine and wonderful... Then I go in for the AFI and the tech spends all of two minutes looking at my belly, gets ONE pocket of fluid measuring at 2 cm, and runs out to go get the doctor after asking me if my bags are packed. I tell her, no, because this baby's not given me the signal yet. I'm not worried and she's doing great... well so this OB comes in, spends about two seconds with the ultrasound, and tells me, "Oh, I know you took bradley classes, and they don't always agree with us, but"... then launches into a lecture about how the baby's not doing so well, or the placenta is failing, and here's the evidence 'cause we only found 2 cm of fluid, so I need to hurry up and go to L&D to be induced, or I'll have a stillbirth/dead baby on my hands... My husband's auntie was in the room, and guess who he aimed most of his talking at? Auntie. He was TOTALLY into the whole "you have to act now or your baby's going to die" thing. Now, I'm a little concerned about the numbers-- my mom's a midwife and she told me to keep it over 10 cm by drinking lots of water, taking a bath, etc. 'cause that way they'll leave me alone, plus we're talking a difference of 5 cm in like two days... so yeah, I'm a little concerned... But I have this HUGE alarm bells going off in my head, and i'm thinking, SOMETHING ISN"T RIGHT HERE... so I calmly listen to the doctor, nod my head, and then say, "Ok, but before we do anything drastic, I'd like to get someone else to check the numbers, please." To which his response is,
"Well, I know you probably didn't want it to go this way, but I have no problem messing up people's plans if it means I won't get a dead baby out of the deal."
I'm like, "Ok, but I'd like someone else to double-check, please."
And he goes, "Well, you know, I"m the top dog here, I'm the head of the high-risk department and I really don't think you're going to get a different answer. I think we should get you over to L&D right now."

I'm like, "ok, But first I want some one else to check, please get someone else in here."
So he huffs out and they go get someone else. She comes in and she's like, "Well, How are you? I've been doing ultrasounds since 1985... what have we got? fluid check?" I'm like, yeah.

So SHE spends about five minutes and guess what HER number is? 7.6 cm!!!!!
The other tech is like, "Oh, no, that can't be right... DO that AGAIN!" and clears off all the numbers... Well, the baby moves and the first pocket she had measured was now blocked by the cord... so she couldn't count that one again, and she did the other pockets and comes up with 6.5 cm... I'm like, Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know. That number sounds WAY more like what it's closer to... We're not going into L&D today. We'll wait.
SO the doctor comes in again, and he's all huffy, still wanting me to go and get induced, or at least come in tomorrow so they can check again...
No apology for trying to scare the pants off of me, no "Oops, I'm so sorry I missed that *4cm* pocket of amniotic fluid..." it's "Oh, well, maybe the baby moved, we can't help that... We really should be checking this more often." I'm sitting there going, "Sorry, doc, I really don't have a lot of confidence in the accuracy of your tests if YOU got 2 cm and the next girl gets over three times as much. Not going to get induced off of that. I'll just do my kick counts and listen to my baby. I'll know if there's something wrong."
THEN he tries to tell me that REGARDLESS of the inaccuracy of the test I should still be worried, and he's putting in my chart that he STRONGLY recommends I get induced TODAY....

I am *SO* incredibly livid. I'm appalled. I can't describe the affront this makes me feel. I just *really* have to wonder how many other women this happens to over here because... well... If I hadn't been fully expecting them to try and bully me into an induction, what would have happened? What would have happened if I hadn't made it my business to be *very* aware of not only my body and my baby, but common scare-the-crap-out-of-you tactics?

 

[beautiful_mama]

Um yeah. BTDT had my second child at Ft. Campbell's Army hospital and OMG the horror.

GFU for sticking to your guns...my suggestion is, wait until you are practically PUSHING to go to hospital, seriously.

I had a nurse duirng my induction with my son who was so stinking rude I wanted to shoot her, but instead I ended up shooting a really long and strong stream of pee across the room that hit her right in the face mid contraction ( they were *checking me* when I told them I HAD to pee...only it felt like they were yanking at my tonsils...and yeah I kind of felt like she got what she deserved

)

They didn't believe me that I was fully dialated and needed to PUSH even though I was GRUNTING for crying out loud *sigh*

SUCH idiots.

I feel for ya!! I really do, but stick to your guns because they will try and manage every aspect of all of it and things can go very, very wrong.

And about that doctor, he's just pissed because his ego is bruised...just keep trusting your mommy instinct

If only more mama's to be did that...we have fewer csections and awful deliveries like mine was.

 

[mighty-mama]

That is awful mama. and I'm glad it worked out in the end.. What a bunch of morons..

I had an incident while in labor at my hospital. The "resident" who was attending my VBAC, tried telling me my uterus was going to rupture, and that's why I wasn't dilating fast enough. His stupid nurse was there agreeing with him too. They told me I need to have my water broken. I was disagreeing with them, and told them, I'm not making a decision until my dh got there, (even though I wasn't going to do it, I knew I couldn't say "hell no" as they would be more horrific to me ) (he was coming back, since he dropped DS1 back off at home). They were livid I wanted to wait for him. And since they wouldn't stop pressing the issue, I told them, I wanted to speak to the attending physician on staff.. They got all huffy, and said "she's busy", but "she'll tell you the same".. I kept saying "oh, okay, I'll wait for her to be un-busy".. Luckily for me, I started thinking to my sister that I was getting pressured into breaking my water, and then seconds later my water exploded..

But it was wonderful to undermine them.. And I'm so glad I proved those idiots wrong and had a complication free VBAC!!

 

[jazzybaby9]

My mother actually had my brother and me in an Army Hospital since my father was in the Navy at the time. The nurse tried to send her home while she was in labor with my younger brother...she was refused a room and being pushed toward the exit. She YELLED & YELLED for a doctor because she was obviously pushing and wanting help......all while this b!tchy nurse was trying to push her out the door to go home!!! My brother was crowning when the nurse FINALLY realized she really was in labor and giving birth right there in the waiting room!

:

 

[echospiritwarrior]

 

[Ruthe]

Ugh! I'm sorry they are attempting to manipulate you this way.

 

[Tenk]

Hi ladies, I have a story to tell about Army hospitals. I'm not pregnant and I'm not in your DDC, but I thought you should know.

I went in on March 8, 2006 for a labor check, contractions coming, lots of pressure. They check and tell me I'm not in labor, to go home. I then point out that Kamryn's heart had dipped about to 108, 106, and 105 about 4 times (total) in the 5-10 mins I was in there being monitored. They tell me it's b/c she's sleeping. I then pointed to the strip that monitors her movements, and said "Um, NO, she's wide awake and kicking....look" so the response I get is, oh I guess she is, well she's fine, come back if your contractions get worse. Well they ended up going away, and I was fine. The next day I thought something didn't feel right, but sometimes babies have sluggish days inutero too. By the very early morning of the 10th I knew something was terribly wrong. I was afraid to call DH since he left work 2 days earlier (he's a fireman in the AF), and I had 3 children 6 and under with me. Rushed to L&D hysterical and they put me and my 3 kids in that tiny little triage room. Where they then proceeded to tell me my baby had passed away. I was 38.1 weeks pregnant. She was over 7lbs. Someone else called DH and he had to then rush to the hospital to help me decide if I wanted to then be induced or go home and wait for labor. At this point it could have taken *forever* to go into labor on my own. Someone else had to come get the kids, and it took all of DH's strength in the world to tell them that she had passed (2 of them to young to understand). Now here we are 1.5 years later and I can't seem to get pregnant again. I tried to sue the hospital, and they withheld my records for what seemed like months. My attorney got my records eventually and someone decided I didn't have a case. Someone also "lost" all of the monitoring strip from that day somehow. I can't change it, and I'm healing from it now, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have never left the hospital that day. Maybe our beautiful little girl would be a year and a half old now.

Good luck to you and your new little ones....all of you!!!

~Teneal