January 2017 - This was my third baby. I had had a very difficult pregnancy followed by a really painful c-section recovery. I had felt traumatized already at this point and tried to express this to staff. Their social worker was horrible to me, she accused me of having postpartum depression (not true and disproved by my family doctor).
She called CAS on me who harassed me for two months. They had a psychiatrist see me, who asked me no questions, just assumed I had postpartum depression.
They lied to me and tried to have me locked away in the mental health unit. I was forced to take medication that made me feel out of it under the implied threat that I had better comply because I could lose my baby. I had to defend myself against interrogation while extremely out of it.
At one point a mental health nurse (who I recall was dressed very much like a security guard), told me I was no good to my husband or children unless I complied with their demands to allow myself to be committed!
I was monitored by nurses constantly, they would often walk away with my baby without explaining why. I was treated like a criminal!
I was never allowed to be alone with my kids, CAS interviewed all my friends and family, it was like a trial. I felt non-existent as a mother. They ripped open my life all for the fact they had decided I had postpartum depression, I did not! I was already traumatized, and so much more so now, more than a year later.
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.
Submitted by JJ
