Care Without Consent
“I was in excruciating pain the entire time. It left me in extreme pain, I was in agony, when she finally stopped, she took a deep breath and immediately had the conversation with me that it doesn’t seem as if I’m moving along and because the baby showed distress recently, I cannot remember whether this was before the exam or after. After her exam I felt violated, i felt dirty, I felt like I was reliving a rape I had experienced in the past and all the emotions that came with it, I was in pain and next thing I know I hear the doctor say out loud to the nurse “no she’s just not moving along, I EVEN tried to manually break her water and it wouldn’t budge at all, and I tried hard!’“
Read MoreV's Story - Sault Area Hospital - Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
“Before my discharge from the hospital I had at least three different providers warn me that I'm at a greater risk for postpartum mood disorders because of my traumatic birth experience. It's odd to hear someone else label your birth as traumatic, especially before you realize it for yourself. Where do they think the trauma comes from? The loss of my home birth plan? The prolonged, high intervention induction? The unplanned c-section? The complicated repair with significant blood loss? While not the outcomes I'd wanted, I can make peace with those events because I had the opportunity to make the informed choices that brought me there. Surely they didn't recognize that the greatest source of trauma were the moments where I was stripped of my autonomy, otherwise they should have seized the opportunity to prevent it.“
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Read MoreMidwife Assault - Quinte Midwives, Belleville, Ontario
“During a normally progressing labour at home I said no to a vaginal exam. The attending midwife said I could have a little more time but then she was going to perform it. After my little more time when she advanced toward me saying she was going to do the exam now I again said no and she told me I was not allowed to say no and began threatening that I wouldn't be allowed to keep birthing at home and she was going to call an ambulance to have me removed to the hospital if I kept refusing. I had chosen a home birth to stay out of the hospital due to so many women reporting having pitocin and other medical procedures done to them against their will, but now I was being threatened by this midwife in my home with the same violence I was already trying to avoid.“
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Submitted by Cielo Almendras
Cielo's Story - Markham Stouffville Hospital, Ontario
“At first, it was difficult to define what happened to me because I didn’t know how I was allowed to feel. I was supposed to trust that my healthcare providers knew best, but I don’t feel like I benefited from their decisions. I know, now, that what I experienced was rape. My right to body autonomy was violated. My right to consent to what happens to me was violated. Of course I’m grateful that I’m okay and my baby is healthy, but I’m still a person. Outside of a pregnant woman’s hospital room, the things that happened to me would qualify as assault.”
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Tarin's Story - Peace Arch Hospital, White Rock, British Columbia
“While I understood that my delivery was not going the way I wanted, and my OB had her reasons to do what she did, she gave me an episiotomy when I specifically said No! She said, ‘I have to do an episiotomy.’ I pleaded with many No, No, No's, and she said, ‘Too late, I already did it’.”
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Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta - Submitted by Keavy Martin