"So OB returns and says it’s time, gives me some info and I ask about a ‘gentle c-section’ that I had learned about in our prenatal class and she laughed at me.
After 30 hours of labour this doctor laughed at my distress that my daughter wouldn’t have skin to skin with me or be able to try to latch on her own soon after birth."
"I feel like I didn’t advocate for myself and didn’t demand explanations to what they were doing and why. I allowed them to unnecessarily intervene. They broke my water and administered pitocin to speed it up. I could have laboured on my own longer since I was progressing just fine."
"I filed a complaint with the hospital. It was largely ignored. The birth unit manager told me they didn't have a lot of experience in this area and that she was sorry they had over-reacted. That was it. How could they not have experience with this? I have had no closure because complaints made to them went nowhere.
I wanted my last birth experience to be joyful, I wanted to have those happy memories. They were stolen from me by this incompetent hospital. I will never be the same again."
"I have a very strong personality but these “bad” nurses broke me. They made me feel like if I didn’t do what they said, they were taking our son. They made me feel like an idiot and like I wasn’t fit to be a mother. I felt so insecure about being a mom that I had to get my mother to stay with my husband and I for a week because I was sure I didn’t know what I was doing and I was going to screw everything up. I’ll never forget feeling so useless, stupid and unfit. "
"We thought maybe, just maybe, she was hungry so my boyfriend started feeding her and decided not to take the bottle away (even though the nurses were SO SURE she only needed a small amount to be full) and sure enough she ate more, and WOW, NO CRYING! So after thinking we had a child who was very unhappy, it turned out the nurses were making us starve her. How were we supposed to know?"
"My experience in labour was fear and anxiety and shame as my nurse wouldn't even bring me a bed pan. I felt scared and helpless. I felt terrible for my partner and mother who had to watch me go through that.
That being said, the OB on day shift was amazing and made my C-section a collaborative and fear-free experience. Just goes to show that WHO is in your birthing sphere makes a huge difference."
"The nurse kept trying to push the epidural on me which I had to refuse several times. I'm not sure whether it was because they believed that it would be the best way to deliver or they just wanted to keep me in the bed and control my labour."
