Posts Tagged ‘post cesarean feelings survey’

April 22nd, 2010

Post Cesarean Feelings Survey – Question #6

Continuing to unveil the results of the World Wide Post Cesarean Feelings Survey that I recently worked on with Theresa from Health Baby Network, I wanted to move on to question number 6 which was “Did you feel like you were in control or your care and respected through out the process?”

Like every other question on this survey, we saw complete extremes on each side of the question, and very few moderate or middle of  the road answers. 312 women left a comment with their answer for this question, which left me with 14 pages of information, experiences, and comments that could be a trigger for anyone with any sort of a birth trauma. So I truly caution those same people from reading further.

Our of the 851 women who answered this question :
37.4% or 318 women felt like they were in control of their experience, and respected.
35.3% or 300 women felt like they were somewhat in control of their experience, and/or respected.
31.4% or 267 women felt like they were not in control of their experience, and were not respected.

When I discussed some of the comments these women left, Theresa said to me “Man, some nasty treatment” which is horribly sad for any woman who has been subjected to such treatment. It took me nearly 2 weeks to get through these comments and write this post because of the extreme nature of some of it.

So on to the comments.

“They treated me like a number. Like a ticking clock. They seemed to be prepping the OR behind my back, and every request, from ice to squat bar was ignored and almost sneered at.”

“No one treated me harshly at any time, my requests were carried out without protest, good lactation help”

“No respect, no compassion. At the mention of a c-section I started sobbing and the OB just stared at me stone-faced.”

“Dr. came into the room only a couple times the entire day, told me what was going to be done (never asked) she even laughed when she saw me sitting on the birth ball”

“Doctors are experts. I was OK with them being in control.”

“I am disappointed that no one ever explained the risks of c/s to me, especially to subsequent pregnancies, but I do feel like my OB would have respected my choices/opinions had I known better and refused c/s”

“The doctors were very respectful, explaining every step & making sure I understood why & what was going on.”

“I was constantly told what I needed in an effort to wear me down so that I would agree to their demands. I was forced to have my legs open in front of many strangers. I cried and nobody batted an eyelid. I wasn’t important. Childbirth is supposed to be a sensual, sexual, and most significant event in a woman’s and her child’s life which is certainly not acknowledged by the hospital system. I would say that I was sexually abused while in the hospital bed – another doctor (this time male) came and put his fingers into my vagina and the hospital midwife looked on with a smirk on her face that said ” You’re lucky to have such a good looking doctor like that up you”

“my membranes were ruptured without my consent, the OB did an episiotomy without my consent, the midwife was rude and confrontational, students were invited into the delivery room for the birth without my consent, i was left to hemorrhage until i came close to death, and so many more instances of poor care.”

“I felt in control of everything and I was able to explain my desires/wants”

“My first c-section – No. I felt like scare tactics were used to get me to induce w/o medical reason (“every day past your due date your baby has a higher chance of dying”), and then after 13 hours of labor, progressing nicely, I was told I had to have a c-section because my baby’s heart rate was very concerning. Yet, it took nearly 1.5 hours from decision to incision. Doesn’t seem very emergent to me.
Later, when I requested my records, I found that it listed my c-section as ELECTIVE. I still think I was coerced into a c-section because the doctor felt my labor was taking too long, it was the night before Thanksgiving, and she wanted to go home. After the surgery, they told me I couldn’t be with my baby and she HAD to go to the nursery. I didn’t see her for two hours and no one would call the nursery to find out if she was okay. I laid in a hospital bed, unable to move, terrified for my baby who was FINE (the nursery was understaffed). No one seemed to care how I felt or how upset I was. My second c-section was much better supported – however, I firmly believe that was because I demanded it of my caregivers. I knew everything I could know about VBACs and repeat c-sections
and refused to let myself be treated as poorly as I was the first time.”

I feel as though some of these comments are very telling as to the way maternity care works today, and the way that women view their providers, especially the comment above that a woman was happy her Doctor was in control because they are the professionals show us how much faith and trust women are putting into their providers. Good, bad or middle of the road outcome way too much faith and trust is being placed blindly in providers today.

Women need to build relationships with their provider, and build trust, it is not something that we should just automatically be giving because we picked Dr. X to deliver our baby, or provide us with prenatal care.

April 7th, 2010

Post Cesarean Feelings Survey Comments : Positive Experiences

While the comments regarding positive experiences were greatly overpowered by the negative experiences in this survey, as we also have seen in the numbers we got and the results. It would not be fair to only include the negative comments or experiences.
So today I wanted to share the comments on positives experiences from mothers who took part in the survey.

While we cannot include all of the comments, we will surely include as many as we can. Again, I read through over 20 pages of comments on question #5 alone. Question #5 was  :

Would you describe your experience as :
Wonderful – 27.7%  – 227  Mothers
Empowering – 7.4%  – 61 Mothers
Frustrating – 26.7%  – 219 Mothers
Traumatic – 46.8%  – 384 Mothers
Disappointing – 45.5%  – 373 Mothers
41 Mothers Skipped this question
479 left a comment with their answer

WARNING!  : Some of these comments may be hurtful for cesarean mothers who have had a traumatic birth, or birth trauma.

“I don’t view giving birth as a contest or a right and wrong way to do things. As long as baby and mom end up healthy it was a good experience.” – Nancy

“My OB was wonderful. C-section was a very easy thing and not really very scary.”

“I loved every minute of it and was utterly euphoric – I didn’t care how the baby came out. All I cared about was having my baby.”

“It was great! the staff was caring. My family was supportive. The procedure went well. Baby nursed like a champ.”  – Tomi

“The first emergency cesarean was traumatic to say the least. But my second cesarean, which I was prepared for, was wonderful. In the ensuing years, I’ve come to realize that the first was traumatic for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which were my feelings of failure brought about by the multitude of mothers and ‘experts’ who seem to feel that giving birth by cesarean is somehow cheating. It took me quite some time to accept that I had not done anything wrong, and that contrary to the hype, sometimes a cesarean IS the best choice for both mother and babies.”

“I cannot deny that I was in the hands of some of the best hospital staff ever. I was made fully aware of the procedure and the after effects. I had good care following the surgery. But the differences in my life and the way I handled the Cesarean birth compared to my firstborn (who was a natural homebirth) was incredibly hard. I am still healing from all of it 17 months later, and I still have pain in my incision site on a regular basis. I will always be in fear of birthing another child for fear I won’t be able to control the birth process and will have to have a repeat C/S.”  – Jill

“Anytime you bring a child into the world is a wonderful experience. A cesarean is still a birth and a woman should not feel any less for this.”

“My section was not at all tramatic like my vaginal delivery was. Birth was quick and recovery was better all around.”

“I was in control of my medical decisions, the staff/my physician were helpful and non confrontational, some of the hospital practices were unhelpful and unnecessary during my labor. I think surgery was the best option in my particular case.” – Holt

“How my babies are delivered doesn’t define me as a woman. They are all healthy & happy and arrived in the safest way possible.” – C

“I felt at total peace because I went in feeling secure in my choice”

“I would describe my first vaginal birth as traumatic, my c-sections were calm & stress free”

“I can think of nothing but good things with my c sections. I healed well. The c section produced 4 very healthy babies.”

“Quick delivery, fast healing time, healthy mom, and healthy babies”

“It was fast, easy, pain free, I knew the exact day that I was going to have my babies, I adored both of my c-sections.”

“My experiences were great. No trauma, no feelings of missing anything, totally rewarding birth experiences.”

“We are still talking about a c-section birth, right? My vaginal delivery was horrible, frustrating, traumatic, disappointing, we both almost died because the baby was stuck due to the position of my pelvis. My c-section delivery was absolutley wonderful! Sure there was some fear before and during and pain after, but it was 100 times better experience. With my vag. delivery, it was stressful and the hospital staff were stressed too. For the c-section, everyone was calm and friendly and helpful.”

“The staff did a wonderful job of making it a pleasant experience for me and my husband, despite the fact that I didn’t want c-sections”

I am sure there are many out there that do not agree with, or upset with the comments above. I know myself, some of them upset me on a personal level because of my experiences. But unfortunately I need to remain professional as well as unbiased on reporting the results of this survey.

Please keep the comments free of vulgarity, and no direct insults.

For more information on having a positive cesarean birth experiences, please take the time to read Family Centered Cesarean from ICAN.

April 5th, 2010

Post Cesarean Feelings Comments : Negative Experiences

Because of the overwhelming amount of comments that we received on question #5 on the Post Cesarean Feelings Survey, I felt the need to split up not only the results, but the comments into two categories because they were clearly so powerful, moving, and telling of the current maternity care system as well as the trauma some women are facing during their birth experiences.

Just as a refresher question #5 was :

Would you describe your experience as :
Wonderful – 27.7%  – 227  Mothers
Empowering – 7.4%  – 61 Mothers
Frustrating – 26.7%  – 219 Mothers
Traumatic – 46.8%  – 384 Mothers
Disappointing – 45.5%  – 373 Mothers
41 Mothers Skipped this question
479 left a comment with their answer

479 comments = 20 pages of comments I took nearly two days to read through, and decide which comments would be more appropriate for including in our blog posts on the survey itself.
If you are sensitive, some of these comments may be a trigger for you, or shocking, please read carefully, and exit if they become too much.

“The admitting hospital staff was awful, and I had mentally prepared for a natural birth, having drugs pushed on me and to end up having a C/S was upsetting.”  – Wanda

“My first birth was pre-term after hospital mismanagement, leading into probably the worst three months of my life as I had three babies in NICU and I KNEW the hospital was to blame for it.”

“OB spent the last 15 minutes of labor convincing my husband how dangerous it was to continue pushing despite the fact that I had refused the section 3x and I had known of the risks but was comfortable with continued pushing despite HR accelerations. I had been at this for 26 hrs and didn’t want to give in at the last 15 mins. Hubby had been completely supportive up until the OB keep hounding him and refused to participate in my pushing efforts unless I could get the baby to crowning in 1 more push.”

“Multiple infections, complications, loss of control, hospital staff didn’t listen or support, PTSD afterwards, negative effects on baby and bonding” -  Kayte

“Had no idea baby was over 9 lbs. Dr. policy not to vaginally deliver over 9.”

“I was frustrated with my doctor that she wasn’t paying attention to the fact that my first daughter was breech until it was too late to get her to turn. My 2nd was traumatic because of the uterine rupture and losing my baby’s heartbeat for a time right before delivery. My 3rd c-section was my best because I had the best care and doctors.”  – Corrina

“Felt disjointed, like my daughter was not my own because I didn’t birth her” – Mellissa

“I suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because I was coerced into an unwanted, unnecessary cesarean”  – Kristen

“Treated like crap at the hospital, had no say in anything, I was uninformed and scared, they rushed me and pumped me with Pitocin and eventually cut me” – Erin

“The operation was horrific and my baby died.” – Diana”

“Felt as if control over my body was taken from me and I was powerless and weak.”

“I enjoyed labor to the point of my caregivers deciding I was no longer progressing, at which point they took over and I felt like a failure, and that I hadn’t been given the opportunity to do what I felt I needed to do. There was no emergency, just impatience on their part.”  – Hannah

“I knew I wanted natural but got talked into every intervention with “do you want your baby to die” as the reason. Of course my answer was no but with no education I assumed the Doctors knew more.”

“I wish I had been better informed about the risks of c/s delivery.”

“I cannot deny that I was in the hands of some of the best hospital staff ever. I was made fully aware of the procedure and the after effects. I had good care following the surgery. But the differences in my life and the way I handled the Cesarean birth compared to my firstborn (who was a natural homebirth) was incredibly hard. I am still healing from all of it 17 months later, and I still have pain in my incision site on a regular basis. I will always be in fear of birthing another child for fear I won’t be able to control the birth process and will have to have a repeat C/S.” – Jill

“It was induction at 39 weeks for no reason, artificial water breaking, pitocin, laying in bed, epidural and very little progress after 17 hours. I was uneducated and thought the OB and hospital knew what they were doing. I was wrong.” – Lisa

“It has ruined me”

“Labour was a battle ground with no communication between OBs and Hospital Staff. Non-evidence based care where my labour was pushed to a point where my baby’s heartrate became critical.”

“There was no emergency – I was fully conscious and felt wonderful – I just timed out. I had drugs forced upon me that I didn’t need, an epidural was forced upon me as well with”You’re getting tired” and I WAS NOT TIRED. The epidural has left nerve damage in my vagina that continues 11 years after the cesarean. For a normal physiological process to be taken out of my hands, and “needing to be
controlled” is utterly ludicrous and a complete blow to my womanhood.”

“I never imagined I would end up with a cesarean, I never even read the chapter in the pregnancy books.”

“Being coerced into a cesarean because the OB had somewhere to be has made me lose all faith in the medical profession. It was traumatic, degrading and unnecessary.” – Mari

“Insensitive medical team (made rude remarks), not fully aware of options during operation and suffered with reaction to epidural, inadequate support post operative for breastfeeding.”

“I was scared into having a c-s because my OB said I was going to be having a “big baby.” I had a c-s at 39 weeks and my daughter was a very normal 7 lbs 13 oz. I never even got a chance to have a trial of labor.”

“I was disrespected and no one cared about my needs or wants. It was more about the hospital’s experience then mine.”

“I felt dehumanized as all the hospital staff poked and prodded my naked body around me without acknowledging my humanity. I lost all dignity in that moment. It was scary and horrific.”

“Currently suffer from P.T.S.D. from birth, rude Ob who took over, no communication during surgery and newborn exam, thought baby was near death turned out a medical student was practicing weighing and measuring newborn, before I’d even seen him.”

“Felt ignored, belittled. OB’s ignored me during surgery, no one told me what was going on. Was separated from my son for 3 hours after the c/s.”

“I did not want a CS, epidural. Was asked if I wanted my baby to die.”

“Started with well informed, educated, empowered couple trying to birth, wound up with Failure to Wait doctor and staff wielding scapels, seemingly unknowing what this would do to me forever.”

“The hospital staff & doctor were assuring me that a c-sectoon was the right thing or else my baby and I would die because he would get stuck coming out the “other” way and there was no way they could get him out then. During the surgery they talked about Ikea furniture and their wedding rings ignoring me when I told them I needed to throw up as a result I threw up on the floor & someones shoes which they were quick to pony out were brand new.”

“My babies were kept from me even though they were healthy. Didn’t get to nurse them until 4 days old. Felt physically and emotionally incapable to care for both of them and myself post surgery.”

“I felt like an utter failure, felt like I was dying”

“What birth Experience? I had a c-section”

“Once I gave in to the 1st section, I was run through the mill as if I was only a slab of meat. No one paid human attention to me, talked to me, etc. except for one sweet nurse intern who took pity on my pleas & came held my hand.”

“I didn’t get to hold my baby right away, I heard the doctors say whoops! we can fix that!, and my DH got so scared and sick he wasn’t able to be in the room with me   “

“I have always felt that my birth was a traumatic experience bc of the complete lack of control I felt throughout the process and the repeated dismissal of my feelings by attending OB along with other inappropriate statements made during the delivery by OB.”

“Bad recovery, devastating unnecessary cesarean due to ridiculous hospital protocols”

“HATED the feeling of being vivisected and paralyzed. Felt clinical, not maternal.”

“Based on my doc’s history of high cesearan rates I couldn’t trust that he did all possible before demanding a cesarean”

“I was lied to, manipulated, and rushed into surgery. There was no emergency, they just wanted me cut open before my doula could get there to remind me that I still had options.”

Most of these comments really speak for themselves.
No woman should be made to feel like so many of these women felt, and were treated, no matter what kind of birth they are having.

Remember, these were the most extreme out of almost 500 comments.

I can say I look forward to writing up the positive experiences as I need some kind of relief of the negative comments that were left on the survey.

April 4th, 2010

Weekly Round Up

Today in light of Easter, I am just throwing something simple together instead of my normal lengthy week ending posts.

In our house :

• Mission to lose weight has been launched.
• We started planting our garden.

Around the blogs :

• Celebrate Cesarean Awareness week with The Feminist Breeder (I will be live on her radio show tonight at 10pm CST so tune in!
• A ton of posts on various blogs about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and the crap out kids are eating.
• All month long the ICAN Blog will be featuring stories of Cesarean Birth and VBAC mothers. Check it out!
• April Fools baby product style, be warned, some of these baby products are REAL and REALLY disgusting!
• Great informative post about finding and hiring a doula by Desirre Andrews.
• Great post about changing positions during labor.

Be sure to tune in tonight to myself on The Feminist Breeder’s Radio show, a little late for us on the east coast as it is on at 11pm EST but it will be a lot of great information. I will be discussing the cesarean feelings survey that I have been actively working on with The Healthy Baby Network.

Also, be sure to tune in this coming Wednesday April 7th at 10pm EST for author Isa Hererra on my radio show. She recently published “Ending Female Pain” which is an amazingly informative book for women regarding female associated genital pain, sexual dysfunction, and helping to heal.

March 21st, 2010

Weekly Round Up

This is becoming a nice habit of mine, and I love taking the time to post my favorite blogs, news stories, and stuff going on in our own household for the week.

First I will start with our family this week.
Benjamin is getting another tooth, his top right one and it has made for a rough week on top of the house full of sniffles.
The boys & I hung out with Amy Romano this week and her little guy Dexter, it was a beautiful day, and I foresee some writing for Lamaze in my future.
Our wireless router finally showed up!
I got a new tattoo and made an appointment to get another fixed up and shaded!
Got picked up for another article in The Fairfield County Weekly.

My favorite blog posts from this past week :

• The Feminist Breeder’s awesome blog post using a Dr. Seuss book to describe modern day birth advocacy.

• Michael a local doula, hypnobirthing Momma, and a friend of mine gave birth early after a difficult pregnancy (after two previous home births) to a little girl and posted the video. It is super amazing!
• Great informational post on Episiotomies by At Your Cervix.
• Dou-la-la knocks it out of the park this week with two posts, one on why public nursing matters, and Bag the Bag sling in light of the sling danger mania this week!
• Gloria Lemay Quotes an OB/GYN on Unnecessary Cesarean Births.
• Jill at the Unnecesarean made an awesome graph of the c-section rates from 1970 till now, very telling!
• Jennifer Block talks about the Amnesty International release calling the US Maternity Care System a crisis.

In the news :

• Doctors say Benefit of Baby wearing out weights the risks!
• Mothering Magazine takes on Baby wearing in their Special Report
• Michael Moore takes on Stupak, and I love every minute of it!  If you aren’t extremely liberal like myself, you probably will not enjoy this one!

Still I have been doing this week that you should really check out if you missed it….

• Wednesday night I had Dr. Nicolas Fogelson OB/GYN on my radio show discussing delayed cord clamping.
• In light of the recent nice weather, locally there has been one fatal motorcycle crash, and another seriously injuring a friend of our family, both caused by negligent drivers of cars. Remember this time of year, with the nice weather, you are sharing the road with motorcycles!
• Post Cesarean Feelings Survey ended on Monday, and since then it has been a crunch to analyze the numbers, and get consent for comments, and everything we need to do to work on this project more.  The first two posts with information were posted. The first post included the results of the survey as a whole, and the second post on the results of questions #1 and #2 was posted yesterday.  Keep an eye open this coming week for a couple things… More survey’s with a time limit of a month, and the post for questions #3 and #4!
• Check out the Health Baby Network’s post about the Post Cesarean Feelings Survey also!

See ya next Sunday for a hopefully awesome wrap up of this coming week!

March 20th, 2010

Post Cesarean Feelings Survey : Questions #1 & #2

On to Question number one, as well as number two. With the initial question of our survey, we did not opt to allow any questions, so the numbers and information obtained were pretty cut and dry.
Question # 1 :  How many Cesarean Births have you had?
1 Cesarean – 67.4%   580 mothers
2 Cesareans – 23.5%   202 mothers
3 Cesareans – 6.5%    56 mothers
4 Cesareans – 2.6%   22 mothers
1 mother skipped this question

Pretty simple, from the 860 mothers who answered this, it shows the majority have only had one cesarean birth, followed by two cesareans in secion, and so on, and so forth.
No comments, no details, no more discussion to the subject itself.

On question two is where we got more details, comments and really had more information to look through and talk about.

The majority of women in this case did not opt for their cesarean, nor did they have an emergent situation. Many failure to progress answers, which in some cases (in my experience) has been failure to wait on the part of the provider. I certainly cannot speak for all the women who did answer this survey, but I can share some comments that were left.

While all these comments are not directly related to failure to progress, these are the ones I found to be most interesting, telling, and helpful when looking into the statistics we obtained, and the mothers experiences.

One mother, Tammy, shared her experience and said

Always attempted vaginal birth, all resulted in cesareans, first for supposed CPD (cephalopelvic disproportion) was actually a damn golf game, second was fetal distress.”

Another mother shares

Reason : OB’s Failure to Wait

Which like I stated above, and in my own first cesarean experience seemed to be the case. I still stand by my comments that if Doctors are so concerned about their personal lives, as well as their schedules, and time, they should clearly choose a different medical specialty, because babies come when they please, not on your clock.

A great video and example of failure to wait in a stalled labor, and how to avoid it …

Then we have the women who were given no choice, as we are seeing nationally with forced cesarean sections due to providers who do not offer VBAC services, VBAC Bans in hospitals, and some horrible hospital policies.

In response to these policies, several news organizations are covering the National Institute of Health’s new statement on VBAC and VBAC access.

As one mother shares,

“first medical interference, second forced unnecessary”

then we have Vicki  with a slightly different experience,

“First due to hospital policy, then VBAC, then crash c-section at 33 weeks placenta praevia and accreta – result of prior Cesareans”.

The situations being slightly different as previa and accreta are truly necessary and scary reasons for a cesarean delivery.  But what we are seeing with the increase in cesarean deliveries is  the increase in problems like Vicki did experience. Higher numbers of placenta issues, which can be very dangerous.

Another mother, who wished to remain nameless shared her story and said

“my first cesarean was coerced, and all subsequent births were VBAC’s.”

This stood out to me almost as much as a couple other quotes left for mothers regarding provider issues that caused their cesarean.

“First cesarean was caused by medical interference, second was forced and medically unnecessary”
“Unplanned Cesarean, provider lied to me and told me it was an emergency cesarean, but my medical records showed an “elective” cesarean. My second baby was a HBAC (Homebirth after Cesarean)”

While many of us do not want to admit that providers do these things, in some cases it is fact, sadly enough. Another reason women really need to be their own advocates in the maternity care climate today.

While all the mothers who participated in our survey have had c-sections, not all of them were negative situations, or even medically necessary as we have seen in some of the above comments. When a cesarean is necessary, like I have always said, it is an amazing and lifesaving procedure, and we wouldn’t have the backlash of cesareans today if they were not overused.

Angela, a mother of two children elected for a cesarean with her third child

“first two were difficult vaginal births, was told related to the large size of third baby c-section was required.”

And another mother shared

“ one for fetal destress, one because of craniosynostosis”

There are many different types of cesareans, some life saving, and some that do nothing more than compromise the future reproductive health for out mothers.

You tell me what you think!