“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.“
“The room I was in was big, and the doctor went to his desk to get Kleenex for my tears. The normal sized doctor, with normal sized arms, handed me the box of Kleenex and decided to lean on my legs that were hanging over the side of the examination table that I was on to hand the box to me.I felt his "hard on" press into my legs. I have not suffered abuse in my past so I wasn't upset. I just thought OH MY G*D, what a moron.”
“She just scooped my baby up out of the isolette and walked fast down the hall way. I had to hobble after her. I said, in the hallway "can I come with you?" only a question in formality, I WAS GOING with my baby. She didn't give me an option for the treatment, didn't get INFORMED consent from me, didn't ask if I wanted to come with her, didn't ask if she could hold the baby, I could have held the baby myself and walked down the hallway.“
“Planned induction. Difficult birth, nurse went on break, needed forceps, break-nurse pushing down on top of my baby bump under my rib cage making my empty stomach gag a few times.”
“Mama, I see you. In a world that glorifies midwives, you helped me feel less alone in my sorrow. You made my pain bearable. You gave me strength. However far you got in your journey, you had an impact. Like tiny drops of water that slowly eroding a rock, as more of use speak out others will have the informed consent and knowledge that we did not have. I am eternally grateful to all of you. Because the midwives lied to me, too, and I feel better now that I can see you.”
“If I can do anything, it’s spread awareness so this never happens to a mother again. I should have had the proper treatment I needed being high risk pregnancy to begin with, I should have had my cervix checked the first time I came in, in excruciating pain but due to the lack of care the doctors and nurses had, my son is now no longer here with us. My heart hurts that I was left in a waiting room in labour, having full blown contractions for days and I was told I was passing kidney stones and just given pain meds.”
