There's one more thing that I want to say about the babies birth, now 10 months away. I was very nervous to give birth in a hospital after having my first baby in a birth center, which I prefer. (There was no birth center available where I was giving birth.) Because I gave birth less than thirty minutes after arriving in the hospital, there was no time for any of the stuff I feared--fetal monitoring, an IV. Really nothing--they told me to push as soon as I arrived and the baby came as quick as could be. They didn't even have time to put a hospital gown on me--I think they threw one over my shoulders later. And don't even get me started here--it wasn't even a nursing-friendly gown. What the heck?!
They even hurried things up so I could leave 24 hours after I arrived. So everything was perfectly fine, EXCEPT my sleep.
Some of this was due to me--I did not expect to have a baby in maybe two hours (especially after my first birth went on for two days) so I felt adrenaline and really was really confused about what had just happened that made it hard for me to sleep. Also, my husband was snoring. Also, the baby pooped about four times and each time woke us crying. Also, I would listen carefully to his every move and cough. So it was really hard to sleep. BUT ALSO, the nurse came in at 11 p.m. and the nurse came in at 7 a.m. and what is the absolute worse and for which I will never ever forgive them: The nurse came in at 5:30 a.m. to draw my blood to make sure I hadn't lost too much. Now because I had experienced a hemorrhage after my first baby, they weighed every bit of blood I lost to make sure it wasn't too much. It wasn't. They did not need that blood draw. The midwives don't prefer it; the OB's insist on it. All in all, I don't think I slept more than 1 hour that night and I was pretty exhausted. That was the worst night of sleep I've ever had and some of that bad night of sleep was due to the hospital's choices to draw blood at times when they had a low amount of work rather than at times that were appropriate for a mother who desperately needed sleep. I firmly believe (hope!) that in 10 years we will look back and recognize how barbaric that is.
P.S. While my prenatal care at the hospital was fine and was (thankfully) mostly with the midwives--because I hated the one condescending doctor I did encounter, I also noticed a marked difference from the birth center that I used the first time around. The birth center gave me as much information as possible in an attempt to educate me and make it possible for me to make good decisions, I had to ask constantly for that information when I was at the hospital--What was my blood pressure? What is the fundal height measurement? Etc.
4 comments:
I'm not so averse to the hospital experience, being too nervous to try any alternative, but also came to the hospital almost fully dilated with the second baby, and was surprised to be asked to sign about six different consent forms while pushing. Granted, some of them were due to me asking for extra pain relief so not strictly required, but it was still obviously not "informed consent." Those forms could've said that I was consenting to have all my vital organs removed for all I knew; I was in no position to actually read them.
Haha. I love this. Consent under duress. It can't be legally binding! I would fuss if someone tried to get me to sign something while pushing! Also what is the point of husbands if you can't force them to sign it in your place?!
Husband offered but was not allowed to sign for me.
Truly terrible of the hospital!
Post a Comment