Woman Calls C-Section "Rape"

This is a situation where open and honest communcation between pt and doc and other medical personnel is imperitive. Educated yourself as to what is going on

That is a good point, I never thought of it as a "if she comes in" sort of thing.

I still think having a court order demanding this is absurd and if the vaginal birth went wrong then they should step in and do an emergency c section like is done in all other births that go wrong.

She may be entitled to go to another hospital, but if every other hospital available to her has a similar policy, she is still forced to ahve a c/s.

If the doctor is not willing to allow her to VBAC no matter what the circumstances, then how is communication going to help?

What would they do if she came in precipping? It's been known to happen.

Actually, not that many nurse-midwives deliver at home. Usually that falls to lay or certified professional midwives. I don't know the laws in her state, but that option is not on the table for every woman.

The article makes it sound like they are trying to give her a court-order to get a C-section, limiting her choices even further.

Also, what kind of a hospital doesn't have the ability to perform emergency C-sections?? This doctor (and possibly the hospital) is bullying her and giving her BS reasons for it. And they stand to make more money off of a scheduled C-section, and the doctor can still make it home on time for dinner.

Why are you so judgmental? I thought it was the job of the nurse to be the patient's advocate. I also thought that non-emergency surgery was something that needed consent from the patient. Simply having a prior C-section does not suggest an emergency.

I say good for her for standing up for herself. I hope she gets what she wants.

Either catch the baby or try really hard to scare her into a c/s. They might also be very rude to her, especially if they thought she did it on purpose.

I think your analogy is not quite correct. Treating someones pain based on their subjective description is nothing like the comparison of rape to c-section. "whatever the patient says it is" is not a blank check for the patient. There is real room for debate on comparison of assault to forced c-section, and there is also some room for comparison of rape to forcible c-section, but to me (and I am nobody), rape implies assault of a sexual nature, and there has to be some sort of malicious intent on the part of the perpetrator. There are Webster definitions and there are legal definitions which vary from municipality to state to federal jurisdictions.

Then they are hosed. If anything goes awry on this she has set up the backdrop for litigation. Suppose she absolutely needs a c-section? Either emergently or as the result of a failed VBAC? The rates for uterine rupture are low (0.52 % sample n=20,000) in VBAC (Edozien, 2007). However, the rates for VBAC that end in c-section are much higher at about 27 percent (sample n=18,000) ("Attempt", 2005). So what then? This is a bad situation for everyone, and I hope for the unborn child's sake it turns out well.

Attempt a vaginal birth after a cesarean? Another study weighs in. (2005). Clinical highlights. RN, 68(3), 22. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.graceland.edu

Edozien, L. (2007). Vaginal birth after Cesarean section: what information should women be given?. Clinical Risk, 13(4), 127-130. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.graceland.edu

I had a C-section, probably due to all of the medical interventions, rather than actual labor. I didn't figure out that had the labor been completely natural, as I had wanted it to be, my baby would probably have not gone into respiratory depression, which was the reason given for my C-section. At the time, I was young (18) and willing to do whatever the doctors told me to do because I was concerned for my baby and figured they had our best interest at hand. After all of the research I've done, I'm not so sure about that.

And when I figured that out, I sure felt violated. Maybe not in the same way as I felt when I was sexually abused, but I see the comparison.

My grandfather, who sexually abused me, was an authority figure who I trusted and I believed had my best interest at hand and he took that trust and used it against me. In many cases of C-sections in this country, I think doctors and hospitals do the same to their patients, who trust them and believe their best interests are being upheld. Not rape in the sexual sense, but having decisions being made for them about their own bodies, yeah, that's a pretty huge violation.

And I may be an idealist, but as a nursing student who is due to graduate in May, I hope to be a patient advocate, and fight for the rights of my patients to be upheld, and hoping that they won't have to jump through huge hoops in order to deliver in the way they want to. This patient is concerned for herself and her baby. C-section carries enormous risks and she's scared. Saying she can take her "saggy butt" to another hospital is mean, and it's not your job as a nurse to be judgmental of patients.

I agree with some of the other posters, that if delivering at home or another hospital is an option, go for it. There won't be any higher risks there if the hospital she is planning to deliver in doesn't even accommodate emergency C-sections anyway. I live in IL, where that wouldn't be an option for me, though. Nurse-midwives can't do home deliveries here, as is the case with some other states.

I know. I was just making the point that women's bodies don't always follow court orders and if she came in crowning it would be awfully hard to shove him back in.