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MAMA-KANGAROO 002
Which year did you give birth? 2008. In which city and in which child-birth hospital? Belgrade, GAK "Narodni front" Did anything unpleasant happen to you in the child-birth hospital? What? Did anybody insult you or degrade you? How? Only an hour after I was admitted into the Child-birth Unit did I have the first contact with the doctor. Before the exam, she did not address me in any way, nor mention that the exam she is about to perform will be painful (I was not yet on epidural). When I screamed from pain, she asked: "Why are you screaming?" When I replied: "Well, it hurts!", she said: "Do you want to pick up a fight with me?" I see no reason that someone who is a total stranger to me (and who works there) speaks to me in such a way. A bit later, while the doctor was talking to the woman that was in the child-birth box* next to me (who was "her patient"**), I overheard her saying that she decided to take some days off "until the situation settles a bit, as the head of the hospital banned doctors from coming in out of their shifts for their patients". A bit later they took me off the fetal monitor, because they needed it for the new woman that just came in. And they were too lazy to bring in the other one. For the full hour they had no idea about the status of my contractions, or the baby's heart-beat status. When they hooked me on fetal monitor again, it turned out that the labor has stopped, and that the baby's heart rate has slowed down. After I gave birth and was in the Intensive Care Unit (where, in this hospital at least, they keep you for just 24 hours after a C-section) I experienced quite a few unpleasant episodes with one and the same nurse. First, she was very mad at me because, due to the epidural anesthesia, I could not totally control my legs, so I was not able to "jump off" the bed-on-wheels and into the hospital bed. Second, when I asked her to tell me when my son was born, she looked at the chart that was hanging on one side of my bed and said: "Taken out at 1:50 pm." Because of the way she said that, I cried many times... I think that no explanation is needed why. The same nurse refused to help me remove a plastic thingy on my shoulder, so that I can inject myself with another dose of epidural. She said that nurses are not in charge of anesthesia, and that I should call the anesthesiologist, and that they will give me some pain killers instead, as they are anyways better than "that thing in your spine that prevents you from moving around the way I want you to". How were you addressed in the child-birth hospital? With your name and last name, or some nicknames? Which ones? Anesthesiologists and others from the C-section Unit addressed me by my name, while nurses were calling me "Mother". Were there any problems with the accommodation or with the medical equipment? What sort of problems? No, except that I find the beds without the head-board totally unpractical and uncomfortable, at least for breastfeeding. And the beds are too high (women with wounds have big problems getting up from the bed and going back into it). When did you see your child for the first time after the child-birth? How often did you see him/her? Could you see him/her whenever you wanted? I saw him for the first time a few hours after child-birth, for just a few minutes, while I was still totally hazy from total anesthesia. Next day I saw him for a few more times (not when I wanted, but when the protocol allowed it), and from the third day on he was with me the whole time. When did you breastfeed your baby for the first time? Were there any problems with breastfeeding? What sort of problems? Because I was on antibiotic therapy, I didn't breastfeed him until the third day. Since the nurse refused to leave the baby with me during the night (although I asked her to leave him, naively thinking that if the lactation does not establish, I can bring the baby back into the Baby's Unit), because she "does not have time to run around the floor all the time", the lactation was established without a baby in sight, and caused clogging and pain and similar. During the four days that I spent in the Baby Friendly Unit, the lactation nurses would only peek at the door of our room, and ask: "Is there any problems?" After touching us for just 2 seconds they would leave, saying: "It is all good! Just massage it!" But they never showed us how. I solved the problem only once I got home, with great persistence, and am now successfully breastfeeding my child for more than 3 months (thanks to God and Avent breast pump). Did you ever happen to doubt the expertise of doctors and medical staff? When and why? Yes. While we were running to the OR, a midwife commented: "I said right away that this birth will not happen naturally." She thought I did not hear her. The "right away" she mentions refers to 4 hours before doctors decided to do a C-section. Did you ever doubt how justified are some of the protocols and rules in the child-birth hospital? Which ones? Why? How would you change them? I find it unjustified that the breast pumps are banned. I also think it is unjustified that the decision to do a C-section can be made only by a certain doctor (a chief, a head of the hospital, etc), as it just prolongs the whole procedure forever (in the case of my husband's sister: it took 12 hours). Did you have to bribe anyone? If yes, who (you can state just his/her title, without a name)? For what? How much? No, I didn't, and I never will. Do you have any other impressions or comments that you consider important? No, I said everything already... Actually, I do. Nobody tells you anything. I was in a situation in which, in the middle of my child-birth, I just heard: "Into the OR, now!" Nobody told me why we need to have a C-section, or how my baby is doing. I think that mothers should be informed about the procedures and about what is happening all the time. (Of course, although they were in a great hurry, they still did manage to find time to give me a piece of paper to sign - consent for a C-section).
* "Child-birth box" refers to one of the many (sometimes half a dozen, sometimes even the full dozen) child-birth beds that are all placed in one big hall, where all the women give birth next to each other. Sometimes there exists a division between them, like a wall or a glass, but that is not the case in all hospitals. ** "Her patient" means that the woman bribed that doctor to be by her side, to be present, pleasant, attentive, and pay attention to her. If you bribe the doctor, he or she is prepared to come into the hospital to be with you even out of their normal working hours, although the law does not allow them to do that. Heads of the hospitals, in an attempt to put a stop to the bribing, occasionally try to enforce the law by banning doctors to come to the hospital "out of their shifts".
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STORIES FROM MATERNITY WARDS Mama-Kangaroo 002
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