“You cannot operate on my body like I’m not human and treat me like I’m not human. I deserve to know what happened and if this is part of procedures then it needs to be changed. Clearly the hospital procedures do not in any shape or form consider the life of the mother. I was treated as a human shell and shortly discarded. ”
“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?”
UPDATE April 9, 2020: In a later interview with the Ottawa Citizen, a hospital spokesperson explained, “It’s a request, not a policy” and have since backtracked on their request for those who decline an epidural to go elsewhere.
Thank you to all who wrote in to share your feedback!
UPDATE: May 8 2020, home birth services in Nova Scotia have been reinstated!
A big thank you to all community members who contacted the IWK Health Centre and Nova Scotia Health Authority to pressure them to reverse their home birth ban!