Ojo

meltoine

If you're interested, I came across this birth story from a woman who delivered twins naturally in a hospital and she talks a lot about the hospital politics and how she dealt with them. I thought of you when I read it after the discussion in the other thread yesterday.

Just so you know, there are a couple of graphic photos - one of the mom naked from the waist up, and one of the placenta. Obviously, the link is NSFW.

http://mamabirth.blogspot.com/2012/04/natural-hospital-birth-of-identical.html 

MrsOjoButtons

Thanks!  I'll check it out tonight!

meltoine

ErikandAfton

Thanks for sharing this Mel. What an amazing story.

MrsOjoButtons

The shout out to the doula at the end..."thanks for bfing (baby) for me"....I'm wondering if she means the doula helped latch the baby on or if the doula physically breastfed the OPs baby.

Thank you for sharing this, because it hadn't occurred to me to ask for a written copy of my hospital's "twin policy."  Their "policy" to make me birth in the OR obviously comes from somewhere, so I'm wondering what else is written in there. 

MrsOjoButtons

Whoa.  I'm glad I kept clicking around and found the "obstetric lies" tab.  I'm actually getting really pissed off right now, even more so than I had been, because I fell for some of this crap.  After how invasive IVF was, I didn't think anything of some of the standard practices I've endured during the pregnancy.

meltoine

I didn't even see the shout out for BFing. I wonder what she meant. Wow. I know people do still wet-nurse, but I've never actually heard form someone who had personally done it. 

As for the obstetric lies part - definitely depends on your OB, but I'm glad I saw an NP for the most part during my pregnancy with DS. She was much less invasive than the OB I saw at the end. I'm so glad I found a midwife for the next go-around. 

MrsOjoButtons

I went to my hospital's childbirth class yesterday and asked for a copy of their L&D policies (for example, the nurse said everyone has to have an IV, and my OB said all twin moms deliver in the OR) and the nurse said they don't have a written copy of their policies. Hello, red flag. She also said they use two drugs for induction, cervadil and cytotec. O_O The midwives here deliver at the same hospital all the OBs do, but I'm going to call them tomorrow and ask if they'll reconsider seeing me. They originally said I'm too high risk, but given I've been treated no differently than any singleton mom thus far, I don't see why they couldn't see me. 

meltoine

That's a huge red flag that they have no written policies. Is there a patient advocate or something similar you can talk to?

MrsOjoButtons

I just deleted a long response, but yes, I finally found a number for a patient representative!

meltoine

MrsOjoButtons:

I just deleted a long response, but yes, I finally found a number for a patient representative!

Oh good! I hope they can help. In your position I would really like to have a written set of "policies" just as a jumping-off point to know what to expect. That way you can't get strong-armed into something under the pretense of "standard policy" if it's not.