You know you have a bad doctor when you feel rushed all the time…

by Jasmine C
(Painesville, OH)

When I was pregnant with my daughter I decided to use my regular OB. I had been seeing her for several years now and felt fairly comfortable with her. However, I discovered her and her practice to be full of issues. I felt so out of touch with my care. I thought I was educated in what would be happening throughout my pregnancy, I mean I read all of the material provided, I went to classes, watched movies, etc. I submerged myself in anything about being pregnant and having a baby. However, the whole process turned out to be nothing like what I learned about. My OB was really part of a team of doctors, and she may not be the one delivering my baby. I had never met any of the other doctors.

I felt so out of control throughout the whole process. Every visit that I asked questions, I received vague answers or severe reactions. I had higher than normal blood pressure, for most people. This is who I am, and have always been. One doctor would be ok with it, and another would flip out on me. I even had one doctor ask me how my meds were working for me (hello, what meds??). Did I need medication, was it that severe? Eventually one of the doctors, put me on bed rest. And when I complained of my back and chest pains, no one cared. They simply dismissed it as another complaining pregnant woman. Ok, so they flipped out about the slightly higher than normal blood pressure, and could care less about my complaints of pain.

So when I was 36 weeks pregnant, my regular doctor decided it would be best to induce me. I thought fine, this is normal, I have known a lot of people to be induced. I asked my doctor’s some questions, and she assured me I would be fine.

So I moved onto the hospital to be induced. I got all hooked up to have my baby. My doctor broke my waters and started me on pitocin. Every, 30 minutes or so, she would come and check on me, and up the pitocin. This all started early in the morning. As much as I wanted to have a natural child birth, by mid day I had given up, I needed the epidural. Well, once I received that, the doctor was then in total control, and little did I know that she was in a hurry to go on vacation that night! So this baby was coming one way or another before she could leave. I was only 7 centimeters, when the doctor said well I think you can start pushing now. I asked her, shouldn’t I feel the need to push or shouldn’t I be 10 centimeters; but she dismissed my worries. So I pushed and pushed for hours. I was almost at the point of needing a c-section, when she decided to give me this horrible episiotomy. Oh, and I felt that horrific cut, and I heard my doctor say, ‘I thought she had the epidural’. This episiotomy took me nearly a year to heal from; it was worse than when I had my appendix taken out. After my daughter was born, my doctor vanished. While I was at the hospital and for sometime after, my blood pressure was horribly high, a likely side affect from the pitocin; as well as I suffered from severe ankle swelling (which my doctors dismissed when I called concerned). Others who took my blood pressure looked at me like a was a dead person walking – we are talking 175/110. And I continued to have my horrible pains, sometimes so bad I would lay on the floor crying for hours. I went to another doctor to discover my gallbladder needed removed. Upon my 6 week visit with my doctor, I told her about my gallbladder and she just said that that was normal. Uhm, don’t we think someone could have diagnosed this while I was pregnant? All in all I had a healthy daughter, which I am extremely grateful for; but I do feel that some doctors too easily lose touch with their patient’s wants and needs. After I had my daughter I suffered from gallbladder attacks, abnormal post partum depression, severe epidural pain, and high blood pressure.

I learned a lot from this experience. With my son, I went to a midwife and experienced no problems whatsoever and he was much bigger than my daughter. No induction, no epidural, and I still had a small episiotomy; which healed in six weeks. It was a totally and completely different experience. I felt so much more connected and a part of the birth.