Babies: 9 - 12 Months

Bad OBGYN experience: what do you do?

Hi there, I was wondering about how your OB experience was and if you ever felt utterly disappointed. It has been 9 months since my beautiful daughter was born and still, sometimes, I can't help but feel really angered by the way in which my OB "handled" us. (I had no fairy tale like expectations of the birth process, I knew that it's all about surprises and wild cards) and here is why:

I "had" to be induced, since I reached 42 weeks and I hadn't dilated any. (Women in my family, we don't dilate at all until we are already laboring, told this to my doc) Everything with baby and I was absolutely fine, but OB didn't want to let us go to 43 weeks regardless. Reluctantly,I agreed to it. 

Induction day came and I believe that I had a  hypersensitive response to the increasing dose of pythocin. I was having terrible shakes and horrible pains. She kept increasing the dose and I got worse and worse in spite of my asking her to perhaps maintain the dose to see if my development got more stable. Long story short, I had to get an Epidural, my blood pressure dropped horribly and I got an Epinephrine drip to keep me from dropping even more. That's when baby's heart beat dissapears. Nurses rush in, we find her heart beat, it has become irregular, and high now. She's in distress. Through all this I'm cool, calm and collected, just observing and waiting. Once they "locate" the heart bit we  just wait, concerned about another drop of her HR, doc and I agree to an emergency C-section. Since I was already on epidural they didn't knock me out completely and I was able to see my baby being born, which was great. Hubs and I are happy to see that all her vitals are perfect, AGPARs better than average even, etc. 

Once the stitch me up, I hear the nurse filling up the paper work on the procedure: "Reason: fetal distress.." she gets interrupted by the OB who tells her to write instead " failure to progress". (Because after 8hrs I have "only" dilated to 5-6 cm, don't know what the rush was since no medical lit. tells you how long should be too long for a woman to dilate on pythocin, everyone responds diffrently and that's why docs are supposed to give/dose this med on a case to case basis, FYI ) The nurse does what she's told. AND I thought what a bunch of BS that was, that didn't seem ethical to me. 

I wonder how many time these reasons for X or Y procedures done during labor are altered in such a way, so that the statistics/numbers for a certain practice/doctor "doesn't look bad"...at any rate, it all just felt wrong.

I'm glad I didnt have any complications with the operation, yet my recovery has been super long, stressful and painful. I really do not wish a repeat of this whole situation, and I wanted to ask you all, have you ever felt this way? Do you do something about it?  Sometimes I feel like writing to the hospital admin. about it, sometimes like I should start a lawsuit, sometimes like I should just let it all go and forget about it; so that's why I ask, to see if you can help me shed some light on to this matter. 

Thanks!

Re: Bad OBGYN experience: what do you do?

  • My experience has pretty similar to yours, minus the induction. It took me a few months to realize that even though things didn't go the way we wanted, we ended up with a beautiful baby boy, and that's all that matters. A lawsuit would be pointless, since you sign consent forms that list all the possible risks and they protect the doctor and hospital.
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  • I'm sorry you had a bad experience with your OB. My advice would be to learn and let others know from this experience. Tell others you know about your experience, so they don't have to have the same. If you're planning on having more kids then I would probably start looking for a new OB. Previous to my DD I was pregnant, and my baby didn't survive. Just seeing the way the doctor handled the situation let me know I would never be able to feel comfortable with this doctor again. I looked around, and researched doctors and found the most amazing doctor, and now have a beautiful, healthy, happy daughter. Good luck!
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  • Ultimately, you agreed to all these things so I don't see how you could sue.  A doctor can't MAKE you get induced.  They can refuse to continue to treat you if you refuse their best medical advice (for liability reasons) but you could have waited it out and gone to the hospital for the birth and had whatever doctor was available.
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  • I had a very traumatic birth with my 1st. I had a hard time telling or writing the story. I got very jealous of other women with their nice stories. It did eventually get better.
    I went with a midwife for my second and I'm so glad. I had to be induced for HELLP but it was a good experience. Everything did not go perfect but I felt much better about it after. FWIW it took me 22hours to go from 0 to 4 cm then 1hour to get from 4cm to pushing. The MWs were so patient, I'm very thankful.

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  • I'm sorry your birth experience was not what you wanted/saw for yourself but "Fetal Distress" would be "better" for the Dr to put down because "not progressing after 8 hours" would be on his judgement. If he changed it to look good he would have put the "fetal distress" as the reasoning for the CS. 

    I would just let it go and forget about it as much as you can. I know it's easier said than done but just think about it. Would you rather have a doctor with 100 "not progressing" CS's on their record or 100 "fetal distress" reasons? The fetal distress has nothing to do with how the OB is going about the induction or laboring but saying that the mother was not progressing after only 8 hours is 100% his judgement.

     

    I hope this isn't the only reason you decide to not have any more children. I hope if you want more kids you have more and you have the experience you want. Good luck! 

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  • Thanks for the the replies; you're all right, I should find a better fit for me and any future babies I might have. 

  • This is why I think having a birth plan is such a waste of time. It should be called a birth fantasy, because it rarely ever goes the way you think or want it to. I was induced at 39 weeks with DD1 and after 14 hours of labor (and nearly 5 weeks of bed rest to prevent that labor) I was still only at 3 cm, where I had been since 34 weeks. I was weak and my OB saw that I probably was not going to be able to push that baby out. I also have a long history with panic disorder, and I was very close to full on panic mode. DH and I, along with the OB, made the decision that a CS was best for me at the time. I had no idea it would end up in one, but it is what it is, and DD1 was born very healthy and the whole birth was out of my hands, which I was fine with. With DD2, we decided on a VBAC because I bled so much with the first one. Well, my OB never does VBACs, too much liability. I went into labor naturally after 5 weeks again on bed rest to keep her in, just shy of 39 weeks. I wasn't progressing too much considering I was at a +2 station and 3 cm dialated for 4-5 weeks, so they put me on a Pit drip, which does cause your contractions to hurt more (is that possible?). Still, baby's heart rate dipped, I developed a fever, they had to break my water, etc. Nothing was in my control. My epidural wore off right before I started to push, so I went pretty much natural, and then LOs head never molded, and came out 14 cm, with her umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck, which explains why her HR was dipping with each contraction. I then proceeded to bleed from a cervical tear to the point they had to take me into the OR and I required transfusions. Should I blame the OB? She didn't make me dilate early, or LOs cord wrap around her neck, or my cervix to tear. If you don't like your OB, find a new one. But don't have the expectations that labor is going to be rainbows and fluffy kittens. If it was like that, men would be doing it.
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  • My bad experience was in the very beginning of my pregnancy.  I had had a prior miscarriage and D&C in Nov 2010.  In July 2011 I was blessed to find out I was pregnant again, I went in and had my beta levels checked and all was progressing great.....then a few days later I started spotting and cramping.  Went back to doctor and had to see the on call doctor, she did an ultrasound, said my sack was abnormal and I would miscarry again, did I want to go forth with another D&C, I told her no I would just miscarry this one naturally.  For TWO WEEKS, I tried to miscarry, finally gave up and went back to doctor to get the abortion pill, luckily they did another ultrasound and found a heartbeat!!!!!!  I was so extremely blessed and happy, and then I realize that I had not been a "model mom" for the past two weeks and was scared to death.  I was able to see my doctor, explained what happened to him, he agreed to take me on his "special patient", which meant I did not see any other doctors execpt him. He told me what should have happened is that I went back a week later to have another ultrasound and not been instantly  offered a D&C. I shudder at the thought at what would have happened had I went ahead with the D&C.

    After all of the above, I was scheduled for c-section, my DD was breech and the version did not work.  My water broke 4 days before my scheduled c-section and I had cord prolapse at home. My daughter was born via emergency c-section with me under general anesthia and I did not get to see her until 5 hours after I gave birth to her.  I have my amazing miracle baby that is just perfect, no matter what h*ll I had to get thru to have her, I am thankful and blessed.  My experiences above just prove to me that she truly is heaven sent.

  • I personally would not go as far as writing to hospital administration about it. But I would definately change OBs. 

    I had a long labor both times. 42 weeks, both times and induced the second time. but I was fortunate that my OB allowed me to continue to labor and did not rush me. I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience.  

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