2014 - I got pregnant at 18 years old with a very abusive partner. Needless to say, Children's Aid Society were involved.
I started having contractions on the 21st of September, I was 2 days shy of being 40 weeks pregnant. My mom picked me up and got me checked at the hospital but I was only 1 1/2 cm dilated.
I went home where I dilated for the next 2 days. Not super painful, but very uncomfortable. Come September 23rd, my due date, I was starting to feel a lot of pain. My grandma brought me to the General hospital. I was 3 1/2 cm dilated and I was admitted.
It was a long process. They put me on an epidural. It worked like a charm. Then they broke my water and 6 hours passed. Nurse was rarely in the room. I was lucky to have my mom with me who’s a nurse. She would tell me to rotate my body when my son's heart rate was dropping. If my mom wasn’t there I would have been very lonely. Nurse came by once every hour or less.
6 hours passed and I only dilated 1 cm so they put me on pitocin. I fell asleep for 2 hours. They woke me up and when they did, everyone was panicking that my son's heart rate was dropping and not coming back up. I was 10cm dilated and it was time to push. I took 30 minutes and then the nurse was threatening to use forceps and I screamed not to and she said, “THEN PUSH HARDER. You’re not trying hard enough. Your first push is good, second is okay and you’re 3rd one does NOTHING!”. I would've preferred pushing when I felt the need to push, not doing three, 10 seconds in a row. With my asthma, that was draining!
I ended up being able to push him out without forceps. And he came out at 5:56 am, September 24th, 2014 weighing in at 7lbs 13oz. Super healthy and perfect.
Submitted by Chelsey
Due to Children’s Aid being involved, this is where things became not okay to me; Landon began crying really loud so I just latched him on. He was eating for maybe two minutes and the Children's Aid worker showed up. She had a nurse with her who said she needed to do blood work. I had informed her he was hungry and had just latched. She insisted on taking him. She said “I’ll give him right back as soon as I’m done”. The case worker said “I’ll stay with you until he’s done eating and then the nurse must take him away. I need to see her take him”.
The nurse proceeded to prick my sons foot and squeeze blood out while he cried in pain and hunger. Once she was done the case worker says, “Take him away.” and then they both leave the room. They never let me console him or finish feeding him. They just took him to the NICU (for protection reasons; his father had threatened to kill him).
Submitted by Chelsey
I was in a lot of pain in my ribs and the NICU was quite a walk for me. When I walked straight, my ribs would hurt so bad I couldn’t breathe. I’d asked a nurse if she could help me get to the NICU by wheeling me in a chair. She said “I’ve got better things to be doing than helping you get to the NICU. Get there yourself”. I had to walk there, back and forth to feed him and then go back to pump. I did this constantly barely able to breathe.
My son ended up going home with my mother healthy and all, but needless to say I don’t like the way I was treated. It really hurt my feelings that they treated me so disgustingly.
I felt like I wasn’t treated well because Children’s Aid was involved. They were prejudiced and assumed I wasn’t a good person.
Submitted by Chelsey
July 2017 - For my next baby, I was sent home after having my membranes swept the night of July 2nd. I was already having contractions before they did the sweep, however they sent me home.
From leaving the hospital to getting to St-Laurent it takes 30 minutes and my contractions were now five minutes apart already. I went home and my contractions were now three minutes apart, lasting two whole minutes and 30 seconds.
I didn’t get to the hospital until 4am as we waited for my partner's mom to pick us up. When I got there, the same nurse who'd swept me was the one who admitted me as I went from 2cm to 5 and a half in between those hours.
My water pierced while being wheeled to the room so they broke them completely for me.
The nurses I had kept leaving the room once my water was broken. Keep in mind this is my second child and often they say it happens quicker.
I got the epidural but it was done by a practitioner and not a professional. And there weren’t any professionals there to show him how to do it. He kept trying to put the needle it and I felt all these pops in my spine. It didn’t even freeze me past my stomach.
After they broke my water and I got an epidural, a nurse told me if I feel pressure like the babies coming to let them know.
By 6:00am I was screaming that the baby was coming out. The nurses refused to check. Kept telling me it didn’t happen that fast and to stop pushing. I wasn’t pushing myself. My stomach was doing it on its own. They were scaring me saying I was going to rip my cervix if I didn’t stop it. I was crying because I couldn’t. After 30 minutes my partner's mother got mad and told them to just look.
They looked and sure enough my daughter was crowning and so they said, “I guess I’ll have to deliver the baby.” because the doctor wasn’t available.
She was born after 10 minutes of pushing at 6:46 am. She was super healthy.
I had A LOT of blood clots so they shoved their fingers inside me after I'd just had the baby and pushed on my stomach as hard as they could and I was telling them it hurt. She responded “It has to be done, or you’ll hemorrhage." Epidural didn’t work and I felt everything.
Submitted by Chelsey