And despite her lack of medical training, she was right and the doctor was wrong. She clearly knew her own body better than he did.

She had no medical training, she decided her want for a natural birth over-ruled the doctor’s professional opinion, and put her baby at risk as a consequence.

I do think there is a systemic cultural consideration that women aren’t encouraged to assert themselves, which plays into the dynamic of women being pushed around. I don’t know how to say, “Stand up for yourself” without sounding like I’m blaming the victim. As soon as I figure that out, I’ll be back.

I will add that I think the steamroller phenomenon exists everywhere in health care – my dad has a cascade of medical problems that require an enormous amount of interaction with providers, and he often has a hard time being heard, and having processes, and options thoroughly explained to him. He’s felt railroaded on a number of occasions, and bounced from doc to doc as a result, also earning him the label of ‘difficult.’

Ugh, I haven’t even touched on the case – but I did read the court docs and while the c-section refusal was discussed, the courts seemed pretty clear that that wasn’t the reason they terminated custody. Patient and her husband don’t sound as though they’ve been at all cooperative in attempting to get their baby back – they failed to appear for their first court date. Also, the medical system didn’t take the baby away, DCFS did. The hospital might have gotten the ball rolling, but ultimately, DCFS did the removing.

And finally, taking the medical apologist hat off – I’m having a home birth. When I found out I was pregnant I had no desire to fight with anyone to have the birth I want (minimal / no intervention, no pressure to produce a baby in someone else’s timeframe, leave me the hell alone, I’m having a baby).

I should get my own blog, so I can stop hijacking other people’s blogs…

This whole situation shocks and angers me in ways that I can’t fully vocalize, since I’m pretty freaked out by the thought of pregnancy and birth to begin with. To have your body subject to another’s will and an unnecessary surgery would terrify me, so I cannot imagine how frightened this woman had to be. The doctors were asses, but I’ve read a few articles on this case, and the family has not been cooperating with DYFS to get their child returned to them. Should the baby have been taken away in the first place? No. But now that he/she has been, the family should have cooperated with the case worker, and basically bent over backwards to get their infant back. The husband related concerns to the second shrink regarding his wife’s mental state, which I thought was interesting as it sheds light on this whole case.

Court documents:
http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a4627-06.pdf