MOF's Story - Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
“I thought delivering at Mount Sinai was the best decision for my family. There was no part of my experience that made me feel heard, seen, or cared for beyond the most very basic. Getting a healthy baby is of course the absolute most important but it felt like there was zero consideration to the care and consequence (mental and physical health) of the one giving birth...and the one that would be caring for this new baby.”
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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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A's Story - Michael Garron Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
“I suffered, my newborn suffered, and because I couldn't breastfeed properly after this experience I suffered mentally for months over the guilt of what happened to my baby and my inability to breastfeed. If we were just given the chance to offer him a formula feed at the hospital to see if that satisfied him it would have made a world of a difference and it would have saved me from all the anxiety and sleep that I lost trying to feed my baby constantly. But because this hospital promoted breastfeeding they are against supplementing, breastfed is not what's always best, a baby should be fed and they should have helped ensure that even if that means offering formula.”
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Lauren's Story - St Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto, Ontario
“At one point I asked her if I could go in shower but she said no because the monitors weren’t waterproof. The nurse that came in later said I could because they were waterproof... I was surprised again by this misinformation. I didn’t use the shower because by that point I was nearing pushing and had had an epidural. The OB team switched over and so did my midwife team. My midwife checked my cervix once and the OB did so the times after that. The OB was exceptionally rough with my cervix to the point where I asked her to take it easy because she was hurting me. Nothing changed and hours later during one of her last checks she said, “I was going to open your cervix and inch or two but didn’t because I didn’t think you’d like it”. Damn straight I wouldn’t have liked it! What happened to consent?”
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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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Read More"Giving birth to twins is an undertaking" - Ontario
“I understood the importance and urgency of the procedure but was shocked that my body was treated the way it was, lack of consent was ignored and I felt like I was being punished for choosing to birth without pain medication.”
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Read MoreC's Story - Chatham, Ontario
