TTSOML #135: Healthcare During Pregnancy

The case against me was "dismissed" when I was about 3 months pregnant or so. After this, I had a short period of respite where I was able to focus on nuturing my baby. I cleaned, nested, and actually started cooking again. I made a lot of chinese food. I also watched comedy shows primarily, because I knew laughter was good for the baby (from research) and played Mozart and other classical music, and other genres as well. I always watched "Malcolm in the Middle" and then "The Simpsons" and my baby would start moving and then fall asleep while I was lying on my side watching. Either that, or he was listening to The Simpsons.

After jail I had a weird vibe about Stacey Stubblefield, but I ignored it until she refused to do an 18 month ultrasound. I had already told her other GYNs had said I was going to be high risk, and I'd had an overdose of aspirin only a little over a month before I got pregnant. She was doing constant urine samples and other things which seemed routine, but although she was cheerful from the exterior, she minimized my concerns. And, I didn't realize she was writing me up as an alcoholic or that she was planning to say this later, after my baby was born.

I felt something was "off" so I switched to Laurie Bronstein (I believe this was her last name). I found out later that Laurie had one of the best track records in the area, and also, I found out from some teenage girls who became pregnant, that Stacey Stubblefield had pulled a couple of "fast ones" on young women who were pregnant, trying to get them to adopt out their kids, and calling them into HER office in order for the police to arrest them for petty drug issus. This girl who talked to me said it wasn't so bad that Stacey reported the girls, as that she used her own offices to do this. She was luring them to prenatal care visits so they could be "caught" by police.

I didn't know about this then, and I didn't have a reason to be afraid of police, but it seemed odd.

So I switched to Laurie, who did a thorough job and who wrote some beautiful chart notes. She felt I was going to be an excellent mother and she didn't write anything weird into my chart. My "social drinking" wasn't reworded into "alcoholic" by her and she was professional. I'd done some research and wanted to try a midwife and then attempt a water birth, where the labor is done primarily in a large tub. I was going to try to give birth naturally, and thought maybe my pelvis was wide enough afterall, with horomones relaxing things, and that if there were any problems, we'd just go to ER. However, as I progressed, Laurie became nervous about my nervousness. I asked a lot of questions and she didn't know if I was really comfortable with a natural/midwife/water birth. I kept asking how long it would take to make it to the ER and how we'd know.

I did get the 18 month ultrasound. It showed a beautifully developed fetus.

I ended up going back to Stacey ONLY because she performed the midwifery services in the hospital. I just felt a little safer and thought perhaps my baby would be safer, in case anything went wrong. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing it was a huge mistake. I should have transfered all of my care to at least Seattle, after all the problems I was having in Wenatchee, and with that hospital and their false claims and "lab reports" about me. It was a very bad decision.

So I went back to Stacey, and I was also still seeing Dr. Butler. I saw Stacey for the routine visits and Dr. Butler for everything else inbetween.

One thing which happened, is I believe I got gestational diabetes. I was eating a lot more food than usual, but I wasn't eating any junk. I was eating all organic, and a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and organic meat and grains. The only junk food splurges I had were when I made some rounds of chinese food for myself and when I ordered deep dish Hawaiian pizzas and ate them within 3 days (I did this twice). By the time I was giving birth, I was 215 lbs. I had gone from 115 to 215 and Stacey never listened to me when I kept telling her this weight gain wasn't normal for me. It was 100 lbs. Literally. Not only that, my urine sticks were showing high sugar and protein the last few months but no one tested me for gestational diabetes.

Not until almost the end, and I had to DEMAND it and then she only did the preliminary test that isn't a very good indicator or very reliable. I know I had the gestational diabetes, because of the way the weight dropped off after I had the baby.

Other things that happened, were because of the weight gain, my stomach muscles separated and tore, and my pubic bones seperated as well, from the weight of the baby. I had extreme back pain and asked for support and finally Dr. Butler or Stacey ordered a support belt.

During this time, I still had migraines. Dr. Butler gave me narcotics for the migraines, and morphine shots. He did this immediately prior to my pregnancy, and during. He said it was the best option during pregnancy, because other alternatives were actually more harmful to a developing fetus. I wasn't on daily narcotics by any means, just occasional.

Dr. Butler wrote up a pain contract and put in my chart, instructing the hospital to inject me with morphine if I presented with migraine. This was Dr. Butler's decision, not mine.

Most of the time, I tried to suffer it out, but when they were severe and lasting 3 days, I would finally go in. I couldn't sleep and I was sick and dizzy with pain. Then, the back pain got very, very bad. Until I had the severe back pain, I didn't take hardly any narcotics at all.

In fact, I think I only had a couple of Vicodin for the migraine and then had to go in for morphine a couple of times.

Utnil the severe back pain.

I was about 7 or more months along when I had more than just normal back pain. It was inside of my back, to the left, and I could feel this pressure and pain INSIDE.

Dr. Butler had already examined me and said the head "was engaged" which means, the baby had dropped and it's head was in a fixed position, ready for delivery time.

But it was after this that I had severe, severe, back pain. It was not normal. I was also having shooting pain in my pubic bones and could barely walk. It just got worse. I figured the shooting pains were from the weight and pressure of the head, but I didn't know what the back pain was from.

Dr. Butler told me to take Vicodin. He wrote out a large prescription. I told him I wanted to find out what was WRONG, not just take painkillers, because I didn't think they were good for the baby. He made me feel like I was a whiner. He told me all women have these aches and pains and to deal with it.

The pain increased significantly until I was at a BBQ with my boss and her friends, and I could barely walk to my car. I hadn't been able to talk much because of the pain. I drove myself to the ER.

When I was checked in at ER they wheeled me to Labor & Delivery, where I was told I was in premature labor.