Is a Woman in Labor a "Person"? New Assaults on Pregnant Women's Civil Rights in a NJ Case
The article today in the Huffington Post about a NJ decision involving a woman who refused to consent to a c-section and then had her baby taken away from her for alleged abuse and neglect is a dangerous precedent that should concern us all.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-marie-roth/is-a-woman-in-labor-a-per_b_242307.html
Imagine being in this women/families shoes. You have a healthy baby and healthy vaginally birth and because your provider wanted you to give birth by cesarean and you refused.. (there were obviously no problems with having a vaginal birth as both were fine) you now loose all parental rights. This is shocking!
Birth is a human rights issues and it is clear that in the U.S we are violating women’s right to informed decision-making that includes informed consent and informed refusal. It is a tragedy and outrage that when a women advocates for what is safest for her and her baby, a vaginal birth she can loose custody of her child. How can this can happen in 2009?
Working as a doula I see many women labeled as “bad patients” when they don’t want to go along with an assembly line birth in a hospital that is not practicing evidenced based medicine. Birth is rushed, scheduled and induced for the convenience of a system, not for what is best for each individual woman and baby. We know that many of the procedures, techniques and treatments that are overused used in obstetrics today are resulting in harm to mother and/or baby that could be avoided by less invasive, and cheaper options. It is time for a critical look at our maternity care practices as outlined by Childbirth Connection in their Milbank Report http://www.childbirthconnection.org/pdfs/evidence-based-maternity-care.pdf
We must also look at the deeper issues of women’s rights in childbirth. This June the United Nations Human Rights Council recognized maternal mortality as a human rights concern. Maternal mortality is on the rise in the U.S. An editorial in the Lancet says: "The resolution signals an increasing trend by the human-rights community to take health issues as seriously as they have taken issues such as torture, the death penalty, and the right to a fair trial..." In addition, The UN Millennium Project 2005. Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women. Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. states: ‘A large body of evidence shows that sexual and reproductive health and rights are central to women’s ability to build their capabilities, take advantage of economic and political opportunities, and control their destinies.’ Yes read this again.. taking away women's rights in childbirth have long and far reaching consequences and give a strong message about women's status and value in the U.S.
One organization that is working on these issues is National Advocates for Pregnant Women, (NAPW) http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org
View the you tube video to understand more How Personhood USA & The Bills They Support Will Hurt ALL Pregnant Women http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3X4_p3yAC8
Please let your voice be heard on this issue, as it is central to women’s status, health and the health and well-being of future generations.
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You need the whole story.
You need the whole story. The woman in question was behaving in such a way that the doctors and nurses were genuinely concerned--to the point that they twice tried to get psychiatrists to diagnose her while in the delivery room prior to delivery. She had been medicated previously for depression, and had shown erratic behavior which was concerning. So she didn't want a C-section...so she ended up being just fine. Great. But that is not why they took the baby away and pronounced her an unfit mother...they were simply concerned for the baby's life. It makes one feel outraged when you hear simply "her baby was taken away" but if you know more of the story, it makes sense. Please don't misquote information. Please give the whole story and then let people decide for themselves whether or not it was inapropriate of the government to step in. Thank you.
Its interesting that they
Its interesting that they would think a cesarean would be better for a women suffering from depression rather than a natural birth that creates a strong bond between mother and child that a c-section lacks the ability to fulfill. When a baby is born naturally a women has a surge of oxytocin (the love hormone) that helps her bond with her baby and begin the task of breastfeeding. When a women has a c-section this does not happen and it leaves her feeling unattached to her child. Many women having cesareans are experiencing a higher likelihood of postnatal depression, postnatal psychosis and even PTSD. C-sections are extremely dangerous for both mother and child and most often a vaginal birth is the safest route to take. When a baby is in distress during labor it is most often due to unnecessary hospital interventions such as pitocin (synthestic oxytocin which does not have the same effects) and/or epidural anesthesia. A women instictively knows how to give birth and knows the safest and best way is always vaginal delivery. Her denying a c-section was not because she wanted her baby to die, it was because she wanted her baby to have a healthy, safe birth.
The above poster has made
The above poster has made some good points.
You can read the judgement for yourself.
http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/decisions/appellate/a4627-06.opn.html
And yet, any woman could go
And yet, any woman could go get an abortion for any reason and there are no legal ramifications for murdering the baby. As far as I can see you have to get a little crazy in order to refuse any intervention during childbirth, the medical professionals believe they have complete authority over the treatment regardless of what the treatment is, and if you refuse then of course you would be deemed irrational etc. I have experienced it in the smallest of things and I do not have any history of psychiatric problems or drug use. Whether this mom has mental problems or not, outside of giving birth, can she truly be deemed an unfit parent??
This happens all the time. I
This happens all the time. I know a young woman who became angry after being left alone in the delivery room for hours after her baby was born without a shower. She asked four times for someone to help her have a shower over about five hours; she was in the same clothes and same bedsheets that she gave birth in. The final time she asked, the nurse attending threatened to take her to the psychiatric ward if she didn't calm down. And to remove the baby. Would most people thinkh she wasn't being unreasonable to ask for a shower? I doubt it.
Yeah, I don't care if they
Yeah, I don't care if they thought she was acting irrationally or if she had been medicated before. The medical community is in the business of refusing to let women have power and control over their own experience. It goes deeper than that, Dr.'s have orders from administrators, who have orders from boards of directors, who have orders from insurance companies, who have rules made my lawyers, and so on and so on....... It's disgusting that it has to come to this. I am appalled and outraged, I don't give a damn what the "ruling" says.
"While the court opinion
"While the court opinion also focuses on the parents' psychiatric diagnoses (which are fallible medical judgments) and their history of care in determining their fitness as parents and abrogating their parental rights, their psychiatric state would never have been questioned if the mother had not refused invasive abdominal surgery -- which was entirely within her rights. The tragic consequence for this family was separation from their infant daughter from the moment of her otherwise uneventful vaginal birth. That kind of injustice can't have been good for the psyche." (Huffington Post, January 2010)
RIGHT HERE, it states that the reason of psychiatric state would not have been questioned if she had of consented to the cesearan section. I honestly believe that doctors are deemed NOT FALLIBLE in the public eye, even when they are wrong. Now, we have an example of the medical aspect forcing people into decisions they are not comfortable with. When are people going to stop going along with the government and medical professionals that are very fallible and start standing up and protecting our rights!! Before long, we will all have to have a license just to entertain the idea of sex, much less be able to have children if we do not STOP them now!!