Forced? I haven't heard about that. I know doctors do get really fucking obnoxious about wanting to induce past 40 weeks, which incidentally adds to the C-section count.
I highly recommend that any expecting parents find a midwife and a good doula.
Mine was forced. I think it happens more often than most women are willing to admit, and hospitals do their best to hide this issue too. When I had my daughter I tried to leave the hospital and called for help and they made my family leave, all while yelling at me that I had no choice. I was stuck to the IV. They claimed they couldn't allow me to try to deliver my 2 lb breech baby despite being fully dilated. That wasn't even my first kid so I'm sure she would have made it out. I tried to sue them and couldn't get a lawyer to take the case since it wasn't an easy one with resulting injury (they don't consider a c section with a t cut scar an injury apparently, wtf) and payoff wouldn't be enough. They literally woke me up saying I'd always need c sections, after I tried to refuse the first one. And said my daughter probably wouldn't make it anyway after all that (she did, thank God). That's unreal. If this was an unusual occurence I'd assume the doctor and everyone involved would have been fired. Instead no one would help me, they got away with it and still work there. I've left reviews all over the internet and when I left them on their Facebook page they deleted them for months, then eventually hid their review section. I found out from messaging others that they delete negative reviews a lot. I think women don't like to mention if their c section was forced bc I had a lot of people call me a liar, or selfish for not wanting to risk having unnecessary surgery that almost killed me. "Your baby is alive, that's all that matters. You always have to do what the doctors says, they went to college for that," ect. Before I said anything people treated me like a hero for having surgery. Soo yea I definitely think this happens a lot. Doctors trick women into agreeing with unnecessary c sections, but they force it a lot too bc they know they'll get away with it.
That's pretty fucked up. The "just do what the doctors/nurses tell you" attitude is why we started looking elsewhere and ended up with a midwife. We had our first kid at a hospital and the nurses were absolute shitheads about my wife wanting to walk around and kneel during contractions rather than lie on her back for their monitoring convenience.
And this:
Before I said anything people treated me like a hero for having surgery
never made sense to me. The woman's battlefield is childbearing. Why do we celebrate and promote failure to complete the task in the best and healthiest way possible (and even while saying that I fully recognize that sometimes a C section truly is the only way). Let's celebrate the women who endure the pain of fully natural labor for the sake of their baby's health.
i want to do an at home birth because im worried they will force a C section on me.
I'm pregnant and expecting very soon, but im also scared to do it at home because i cant afford a midwife and my husband is unsure because we dont have all the medical supplies we might need. we both want to do it at home but are young adults. we didnt go to a clinic very often during the pregnancy and alot of places are telling me even though everything looks fine i am considered a high risk patient.
what advice might you have to offer? i dont think i will need a C section, ive been healthy. i would like my husband to have the power to get me out of the hospital if the doctors start getting weird on me. do i give up my rights as a human being when i go to hospital or do i still have say in what kind of care i recieve?
Hospitals aren't technically supposed to force surgery like they did with me but it happens. It's illegal to force surgery unless they have a judge's order to do so, but even then I'm pretty sure you can switch hospitals to avoid it and it's not all that common as far as I know. Look up the definitions of consent under duress and informed refusal, know your rights. The American College of Gynecology has a page on their website saying doctors can't force any treatment on pregnant women, I'll post the link to that below. Don't sign consent forms even if it seems like a way out of the room. They had me stuck to an IV, which is why I didn't walk out, and they lied to my husband to get him out of the room, wouldn't let him back in after. To avoid getting stuck you could either refuse IV or get a hep lock/saline lock/j loop which would let you walk around without an IV stand. An epidural would get you stuck too but those are sooo dangerous anyway. Also most labor drugs used for induction like Pitocin can cause complications that lead to c section or even rupture, dangerous for the baby too, they didn't explain that to me with my 1st. Record everything on your phone starting right before you enter the hospital, make sure your phone is fully charged and bring a charger. Have your husband stay in the room the whole time without leaving if possible, even if they ask him to step out. Call the police if they try to force surgery or won't let you leave, remember without a court order forced surgery is illegal. You should be able to sign an Against Medical Advice form to protect the hospital from liability if you leave. I wish I had more info on home birth for you. All this sounds so complicated compared to just staying home lol but understand why you wouldn't want an unassisted home birth. Despite hospitals being sketchy, if you're too nervous or uncomfortable at home that's not right either. If you're set on a home birth you might want to check out home birth Facebook pages for information and support. I've learned a lot from the VBAC group I'm in. If you choose a hospital you'll probably have a better experience than I did knowing your rights and taking precautions to protect yourself. They caught me off guard and I didn't know how to react. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
If I understand correctly, this is your first baby. I would not try an at home birth with the first baby and no midwife. I assume neither you nor your husband are nurses.
I am all for questioning medical authority and being your own doctor at least some of the time, but I do think there is a lot that could go wrong, especially your first time around. If you cant scrounge up the money for a midwife I think you need to bite the bullet and use the hospital.
Youve probably researched a few things you can do to avoid the c section.
Your husband could get made a medical proxy or surrogate decision maker, which means he could make decisions for you if you werent able to for whatever reason. But I think in most situations you are your own best advocate. Especially if you are informed.
Our medical establishment has become somewhat corrupt. So its a hard decision. But I still think its a better option to brave the hospital than going it alone.
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