New Jersey Woman Loses Infant To CPS Because She Refused An Unessary C-Section.

I read a lot of the article, but I will admit I didn't finish it because it was long.

I feel sorry for this woman. It sounds as if they labelled her "psychotic" because she just acted the way many women act in labor...well, that's what I hear, anyway...I only know about labor from having my two children.

I won't say it was a mistake to have a child in a hospital...it's where I had mine...but if you decide to labor there, you should come armed with the facts and make them keep their hands off you from the very beginning. I refused an epidural and all other drugs. All they could get into me was an IV. I also brought along a doula (a labor coach I paid for myself) and my husband. Luckily I had two easy labors and I was not tempted to beg for pain relief, and a doctor who was accepting enough to allow me to labor in a natural way.

I am betting the docs also labelled her labor "high risk" just because of her age, which was over 40. That also is a bunch of crap. Healthy women tend to produce healthy babies, and age is less of a factor than they think.

One other thought: by the time they tried to administer the epidural the lady was thrashing around. Is it possible she was in transition and about to get to the pushing stage? *Nobody* can sit still or be rational during transition...and it's not a good idea to give an epidural during transition anyway. So they label her a crazy. Although I was an exceptionally quiet person during labor, my refusal of medication still freaked out the doctor at my second birth--a female doctor who was on-call, who I also think was pissed off at me for inconveniencing her day off.

They just want us to be cogs in the labor machine, and anyone who does not conform is going to get trouble. If this poor lady decides to have another child, I'd recommend a midwife and a birth at home. She can scream there all she wants, and the guys with the straitjackets and Social Services can stay away.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson

I would go insane if someone had taken my child away from me at birth. That poor lady.