We were sitting down relaxing the TV
was on and Anderson Cooper was on the screen. His topic of the
evening was women addicted to prescription drugs. While the subject
matter was valid I felt the particular case he brought to light was
a much bigger subject than what he seemed to view it as. To Cooper
(who I will state right here and now... I adore and respect) she was
just a drug addicted mother and wife trying to hide her addiction and
hurting those around her. Which that in itself is bad enough but that
was not the whole story at least not to me... and not to thousands of
other women around the country. I heard what she was addicted to
OXYCODONE and immediately listened for one word one word that would
explain so much...... C-SECTION.
The woman in question had been talked
into a c-section by her doctors, told it was the ONLY option and then
afterwards given an oxycodone drip that she had a push button to
control her own meds. Not only that but then like all post op
c-section Moms, she was sent home with a bottle full of pills.
According to Cooper's statistics he said a surprising amount of women
are addicted to prescription drugs. I will almost guarantee that at
least half are post op c-section Moms addicted to oxycodone.
We live in a broke system. The business
of being born in this country has become insane. According to an
article (http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10554)
there has been a giant rise in the amount of c-section births most of
which were first time mothers and a plummet in the amount of VBACs
(vaginal birth after c-section) done nation wide. They estimate
c-section rates at nearly 35% of all births in this country as of
2009. The VBAC rate is only around 9% and the amount of c-sections
done to first time mothers is at 20%. Astounding!
So why is this a broke system. 1.
Doctors make more money off a c-section. 2. They can keep you in the
hospital longer ensuring more money for the hospital as well. 3. Not
performing VBACS takes the risk off their shoulders and 4. in getting
a mother to make the decision herself or declaring it an emergency is
easier than taking the blame if something goes wrong and lastly 5.
the first sign of trouble and the doctors throw in the towel and grab
a scalpel. The worst part is that is all just the issues that are in
the c-section itself but the even bigger issue is what comes next.
You are pumped literally pumped full of morphine, oxycodone, and
prescription strength motrin. Often at higher doses than would be
given a victim of a car accident or major ailment. You are given
levels of these drugs designed almost to get you addicted.. and it
doesn't take long. So why do I hate this system of being born? Why do
I cry when I hear stories like what happened to this poor woman and
the damage it caused her family. Yes she could have gotten help or
stopped.. but sometimes you don't have the strength. I did but it
wasn't easy. Here is what happened to me.
In 2009 we conceived our son. He was
born late that year in the end of September. At 40 weeks he was
estimated to be 11 lbs. My midwife until then had been supporting my
wishes for an all natural childbirth which originally I had wanted a
water birth but found out our hospital could no longer do those, so I
had plans to carry out my labor in a tub and give birth in a
squatting position in a birthing room. The day my last ultrasound
showed a larger than normal baby I was told it was in my best
interests as a first time Mom as well as my sons to choose a
c-section. I talked it over with my husband but I knew the decision
was out of my hands.. I knew if I chose to try and give birth
naturally they would be itching to pull out the scalpel anyway. I
knew he would most likely be born c-section anyway and this way it
was my choice not theirs. They told me if I chose natural there was a
large chance of dislocating his shoulders. I was terrified. This was
not what I had wanted. I had until that day not had so much as a mole
removed or stitches let alone major surgery. I had never had a cavity
or a broken bone. My body was pristine... an unscarred uncarved blank
slate. I was now being told for the sake of my son I should let a
doctor for the first time ever slice into my flesh, open me up pull
my major organs out, possibly let me bleed out on the table and pull
my son out of me and hopefully put everything back inside me right
and hope I don't die.
So I chose my son. I was lead to
believe that no woman could deliver such a huge baby as a first
child. I believed them and was put into the OR first thing the next
morning and my son was born. I was then brougt upstairs where for the
next 2 days I was given a morphine IV drip and 2 oxycodone every 4 hrs
and 1 prescription motrin every 6 hours. After two days I was taken
off the morphine but was kept on the rest. At the end of the week I
was sent home with enough oxycodon to easily lead to a massive
addiction. The only warning I was given was to ease myself off the
pills. However I was breastfeeding and wanted to be rid of these
drugs as quickly as possible since they were going into my son as
well as me. So a mere 2-3 days after being sent home I cut myself
off. For 2 days I was almost suicidally depressed. I thought I was
going through postpartum depression. I was shaking, cold, hot, I
threw up, I cried and cried. I felt like I had the flu. Finally on
the second day I was at the worst of it. My husband came home to me
sitting on the couch cradling the baby and rocking back and forth
hair greasy and matted, sweat dripping from my face, sobbing into our
nb son. I confessed I thought I had an infection from the c-section
and was dying and that I also had postpartum depression and needed
help. My husband thought it unlikely that I had both a massive
infection and postpartum depression so he asked me to describe my
symptoms. When I did he told me “You are going through withdrawal,
hunny. For all intents and purposes you are going through what a
heroin addict goes through but to a lesser degree”. I was shocked!
How could my doctors have let this happen to me? I wondered, how many
other women realize it's the drugs and stay on them to make that
feeling go away? How many women, like that poor woman on Anderson
cooper's show... need help or are hopelessly addicted because their
doctors convinced them that their own bodies were incapable of
something the were designed to do and then gave them dangerous drugs
to ease the pain? Apparently the answer is 35%. It is a dangerous
game these doctors are playing and I truly believe that until things
change their will be a lot more stories like that one, and like mine.
These stories must be told to help turn the tide and prevent this
misuse of the health care system. People have wondered why the rise
in home births. It is because being born shouldn't be ruled by
commercialism and commerce. Being born should be wonderful and most
of all safe... and most women do not feel that doctors today have
their safety at heart.
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