Sunday, June 29, 2014

My Home Birth Experience - Part 2: The Aftermath

Part of my reason for having a home birth was not wanting any interventions. This included all bothersome, unknown people coming in and out of my room to check this and that for days on end. I realize that there have to be SOME examinations of baby and mama after birth to ensure that there are no complications. However, I feel that it is a bit over done in the hospital setting. I wanted as much private, quiet time with baby and family as I could get. Unfortunately, this never really happened for us.

This "Part 2" of my story is not quite as happy as "Part 1". If you haven't read "Part 1" of my home birth experience you can go HERE first, then come back.

The difference between having a good midwife as a caregiver and having a doctor is like night and day. I emphasize the word "good" because I'm sure they are not all equal.
A midwife will spend hours upon hours getting to know you. Not only will they get to know where you are physically but also emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Why? It helps build a connection between the pregnant woman and midwife and this helps when its time for labor and delivery. A woman's body can relax so much more when she is in the presence of people who she knows care about her and love her. I can attest to the comfort of having only people who I knew in my room with me. It made me feel safe, loved and cared for. I don't ever recall this overwhelming feeling of love in a hospital with a doctor who really only knew me physically for a few minutes at a time.

This next part may be TMI for some but it was pretty important to me. I have never previously had the desire to see any "parts" that came out of me besides my baby but this time my midwife asked if I was interested in seeing the placenta. I have to admit at first I said no. I really thought I would be grossed out by it. I overheard my husband and midwife talking about it in the other room. She was showing him this and that. This peeked my interest. So, I decided to let her show me.

I suppose you would call a placenta a temporary organ? It is amazing to me how the body produces this organ and that once it is no longer needed the body expels it almost immediately. I found a picture online (I did not think to take one of my own!) and will post it here. There is a part of the placenta that is called "the tree of life" it is a bunch of veins together that look like a tree. They surround the umbilical cord. This fascinated me!! 

I love this picture that I found. The thick piece in the middle that looks like the trunk of a tree is the umbilical cord. Obviously, the other side of it is connected to the baby. I just really wanted to share this part of my experience since it was something I had never been taught before even after having 3 kids previously!

Photography by: Jane McCrae Photography

As you have previously read, Noah was a BIG baby. I was able to push him out naturally but I did have a little problem getting his shoulders out due to him being stuck in my pelvis. This is called shoulder dystocia. You can learn a little more about it HERE.

After several attempts at pushing and several attempts of different maneuvers of moving his upper body, my midwife knew that we had to do something different to get him out quickly. His head was already out for a little bit while I was laying on my side. If you've read "Part 1" of my story you already know that she had me flip from my side to my hands and knees to open up my pelvis more. He needed to be pulled out because he was just not coming with my pushes. Unfortunately, in the process of all of this his humerus bone was broken. He was not moving his arm and because of this we knew we needed to have him looked at.

My midwife said that a lot of times a baby with shoulder dystocia will not transition very quickly. They may have a hard time breathing. Noah was such a trooper. He was SO healthy. He was breathing fine. His color was good. With the exception of a broken arm, he was perfect! However, we still needed to contact a pediatrician. This was the beginning of the horror of a story that would ensue.
The pediatrician  told us to come in right away so I fed Noah for as long as I could and bonded as much as I could before he had to be whisked away. I could not go with him because I could barely walk and could be in danger of hemorrhage as well. So, my husband took him to the doctor who was about 45 minutes away. They examined him and said he was in perfect health but wanted him to have x-rays to see what was wrong with his arm. My husband told them that he would get the x-rays but first wanted to get the baby back to me to eat. The doctor threatened to call child services if he did not go to get x-rays immediately. My husband and I felt that nursing and me seeing my brand new baby was more important because this obviously was NOT an emergency situation. We had the arm immobile and he was only in pain if we moved it. So, guess what? We didn't move it!


This doctor called us about 10 times within a 2 hour period threatening us and urging us to get x-rays immediately even though we told her that we would. So, after I fed the baby and spent maybe another 30 minutes with him my husband took him to a local ER. He got the x-rays and found that he did in fact have a broken humerus.
They told my husband that he would have to take an ambulance to Rainbows (over an hour drive) to be looked at by a specialist. My husband did not feel it was an emergency. Did I mention that this was 10 pm at night? My husband told them no. He would drive the baby himself after he took him back to me to feed him again before taking him on yet ANOTHER long drive. This was unacceptable to them. They said that if he did not allow the ambulance ride that when he got to Rainbows he would have to start the process all over again.
I got to feed my baby again and we all ended up falling asleep for awhile because we were so exhausted!

Meanwhile, we were receiving tons of messages from the previous pediatrician still threatening us and telling us we were putting our baby's life in danger and they will need to take action.

When my husband got to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland at 3:00 am, a resident orthopedic doctor looked at Noah and determined that his health was perfect and his arm was broken. He said that they would not set it or cast it. They would most likely keep it immobilized (which is what we were already doing) but they wanted an Orthopedic Specialist to look at it. This Specialist would not be in until sometime between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. At this time it was 5:00 am. Noah had not been with me for about 4 hours at this point and keeping him until noon would've meant being without him (and him not being fed) for 12 hours. They said that he needed to stay (even though it was not an emergency situation) and they would give him formula.

A little background info: My son Max (who is now 2) had to be given formula as a newborn due to a doctor putting me on a medication that would not be good for a breastfeeding infant. He developed milk and soy allergies. He could not drink any formula because he would vomit forcefully and end up extremely sick. To this day he has food senstitivies. We were NOT going to do this with another one of our children.

My husband told the doctor he would not be giving him formula and that he would take Noah back to me (another hour and a half drive) to be fed and that he would bring him back as soon as they got a specialist in the building to look at him. This doctor said if my husband left that he would call Child Protective Services due to medical neglect of our child. Even though we had been to THREE hospitals that day and my husband was exhausted from driving everywhere. We couldn't believe they were accusing us of medical neglect!

My husband brought Noah home. I was SO happy to see him. I hadn't slept in over 48 hours and was so happy to have him with me again! I fed him and we slept in bed together for a few hours until we received a phone call from Child Services.

The case worker at Child Services told us that we needed to get the baby in RIGHT NOW or we were risking him being taken away. We told them what the doctor told us about just keeping it immobilized and that we really needed some sleep but we would bring him back when we got some rest. Child Services was okay with this plan but after a couple of hours they called us back again and said that Rainbows was not happy that we had not brought the baby back yet and that they had called the police and would be at our house soon.

The Sheriff showed up not long after that and thought he got the wrong house. He asked to see the baby. He determined that the baby was fine and could not understand why Rainbows was saying that the baby was in danger and was in excruciating pain. When the Sheriff got there Noah was sleeping soundly and freshly changed and fed. His arm was immobilized in an ace bandage that we put on because the doctor at Rainbows failed to do anything in the 2 hours that my husband was there. The Sheriff called Child Services and told him the baby was safe and well taken care of and there was no cause for alarm.

Rainbows continued to call Child Services over and over. Our case worker even talked to our midwife to make sure that we were being looked after. She eventually told us that if we did not go back to Rainbows that we were risking getting our child taken from us. At this point we really did not want to go back to that particular hospital since they were harassing us! We asked if it would be okay for us to choose a different hospital and our case worker from Child Services was okay with that.

We ended up in another ER that night. This time I went with my husband. I was in a wheelchair but I just wanted this to be over with and didn't want my husband to have to drive all the way back home again for Noah to be fed.

They took more x-rays and determined that he would not have a cast but would need an ace bandage to be wrapped around the arm to keep it immobilized. They gave us a fancier bandage then the one we had from home. I'm sure this bandage will eventually cost us a couple thousand dollars. This hospital also had us speak with a case worker. When we told them the story they told us they would not make their own report but would just contact our other case worker. Thank goodness!

We thought this would be the end of Child Services since we had done what they asked but they still wanted to make a home visit to make sure we were taking care of all of our children properly.  Once they did this they saw that our family was very healthy and there was no cause for alarm. They said we would receive a letter in the mail saying our case was closed. We still have not received this letter. They said that Rainbows continues to call them daily trying to charge us with medical neglect. I don't think I will rest well until we receive this letter.

I am paranoid that they will still try to take him from us. I cringe every time the phone rings when I don't recognize the number. I worry when my children fall or get hurt in any way. I am terrified of having to take any of my children to the doctor again for fear that they will think I've inflicted harm on them when I have not. I worry that we will not be able to afford all of the medical bills that will inevitably show up in our mailbox after all of this. Thank goodness he did not take that ambulance ride! I can't imagine what that bill would've been.

I have spoken to several people including a nurse at the alternate hospital we chose and came to the conclusion that this sort of thing is not uncommon when it comes to home births. Some doctors feel that home birth in general is neglectful.

I'm hoping this fight is over and that we can continue to adjust to our life with a new baby.

I did get my beautiful home birth experience. I wish that the after birth experience was just as wonderful.

I'm just happy that Noah is healthy and fat and wonderful and scrumptious. We love him so much and those are the things I will try to keep focus on.
               Here is baby Noah at 2 weeks old. He still has his fancy, expensive bandage on!


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