2015 - My daughter moved from Ottawa to Sault Ste Marie in her 8th month of pregnancy. She was low risk and on track for a home birth. Her new midwife in Sault Ste Marie suddenly began pressuring her to have another ultrasound and to have a hospital birth. My daughter became upset and distrustful of the midwife. I went to be with her and when she went into labour, she decided not to call the midwife. She birthed the baby and then we called the midwife. Everything was fine. The next day, 2 Midwives from the practice came and recommended we take the baby to the hospital for an examination. We asked why? They could not give a reason. Later that evening, 2 CAS workers and 2 police officers came to the house and apprehended the baby. We tried to explain that the midwives were mad because we had not called them for the birth. They took her to the hospital and we went as well. My daughter was able to be near her baby during the 5 days in the hospital. After 5 days custody was returned to the parents. We have since gone through proper channels and filed all the complaints. We have launched a lawsuit against the midwives and CAS. I am financing the lawsuit and run out of money so I have started a gofundme campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bqkpk-birthing-freedom.
I am not sure of the impact. Shock and horror to start with, trauma, my daughter basically hid for a year. I still sometimes can’t believe this happened. Some PTSD for sure, and I think we all need therapy.
The main thing was that my daughter didn’t do what the midwife told her to do. That’s it. She is Jewish, married, middle class. I think it was first class bullying. “Do what we tell you or else...”
Filing complaints was almost pointless, They missed the point, and also they just pointed the finger at each other. We will see what the outcome of the lawsuit is.
The bigger issue is how women are treated on the whole around birthing. I have heard so many horror stories. In this society, why can’t each woman have exactly the kind of birth she wants without fear of judgement or having her baby taken away from her? It’s barbaric.
