Post by orangeblossom on Dec 5, 2014 10:15:10 GMT -5
This is a crazy story, and whether or not there was a real reason to be suspicious, it is really concerning that so many similar cases exist and the authorities are being called so often for what is essentially someone's often time biased opinions.
Every time I hear a case like this, I think of the PA woman who had her child taken away, because her drug test came up positive. The reason it came up positive, poppy seeds from her poppy seed bagel. The lab test was too sensitive, and they were basing their results on wrong information. Can you imagine? She did sue and won.
Tiffany Langwell was thrilled to find out she was pregnant again at the age of 38. She had two children from her first marriage — a 15-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. After separating from their father, she had reconnected with a high school boyfriend, David Hodek, and they had gotten engaged. In August of this year, their baby girl was born healthy, at 8 pounds, with bright blue eyes and a full head of downy hair. Langwell and Hodek had what they describe as a blissful first night home.
The next day, a representative of the child welfare agency in Riverside County, California, took the infant into protective custody.
Unhappy stories about child welfare agencies typically focus on instances of their failure to protect a child from harm at the hands of its parents, as in the recent Colton Turner case in Texas, in which three Child Protective Services (CPS) workers were fired after a boy left in his mother's care died. These stories raise the question of why more wasn't done to prevent such tragedies. What we don't hear about as often are the cases in which parents and their lawyers say social workers have done too much.
Langwell recently moved into a new house, across the street from her mother. It's a one-story, three-bedroom house in the Palm Springs region, surrounded by palm trees and breathtaking hills. She has a gap between her front teeth, dark red, shoulder-length hair, and she wears jeans and a stretchy shirt over her athletic frame. While nursing her baby, Langwell sits on her couch, surrounded by a bassinet, ExerSaucer, and Pack 'n Play. She describes her daughter's first week as a living nightmare.
Langwell had been having contractions for two days when she told her fiancé at 11:30 p.m. that it was time to head to Desert Regional Medical Center, which she'd chosen because it allowed rooming-in and she didn't want the baby to leave her side. Once there, she asked for an epidural, but by the time everything was in place for her to receive one, it was too late. She delivered the baby naturally at 2:34 a.m., and around noon was put in a room with two other new mothers and their babies, including one who Langwell says kept talking loudly on her cellphone.
Later that afternoon, Langwell decided to check out and go home. Langwell said the baby was breastfeeding well and was healthy, and she preferred to take her home early "AMA" (against medical advice) so they could all get some sleep. When she left, a member of the hospital's staff called and reported her to the county's child welfare agency.
"Desert Regional Medical Center takes very seriously its commitment to the health of mothers and infants in our care," Richard A. Ramhoff, the hospital's marketing director, told Cosmopolitan.com, after saying that the hospital could not comment specifically on Langwell's case. "As mandated by state law, the hospital calls the County of Riverside Department of Public Social Services hotline when staff believe the situation warrants a referral. This reporting is not done lightly. Our staff reviews the details of each situation individually before fulfilling our responsibility to refer a case to child protective services for further review."
According to the child welfare agency's report, a hospital staff member described Langwell as "hostile" and suggested that her behavior was "consistent with someone with substance abuse issues." (According to a representative from the county's child welfare department, the majority of the cases they see are neglect cases, and most of those are related to substance abuse.) The staff member said the couple and Hodek's mother seemed shaky and had rapid jaw movement, and that Langwell put two pill bottles in her bag. Langwell says the only pills she had in her bag were her iron supplements. She says she was severely sleep-deprived from her two days in labor and upset that she never got her epidural, and that her fiancé and his mother can be abrasive and were also exhausted, but beyond that, she doesn't know what about the trio's behavior could have sent up a red flag. "I never cussed anyone out or anything," she says.
The report notes that Langwell refused a drug test. Langwell remembers being offered a drug test while in labor and says her response was, "How much does the test cost?" Langwell, a former bank teller, has been unemployed since January, and her fiancé, a former medic and water-park manager, is also unemployed. He says he was injured on the job some years ago and received a settlement.
A child welfare agent came to the house the next day to check on the baby. The home had a security fence, and Langwell and Hodek did not hear the knocking at the gate, which was some distance from the front of the house. The agent called the police. When Langwell eventually appeared at the security gate, she saw two police officers and the welfare agent, who told her that the hospital had alerted the agency when she checked out early. Langwell refused to let the police and welfare agent inside the house but brought the baby out so they could see that she was OK. The agent noted in her report that the baby had good coloring. Langwell submitted to an on-the-spot drug test, but according to the report, the test was inconclusive, because her saliva sample was too thick — "which may have had something to do with the fact that I had just given birth and it was 110 degrees," Langwell says bitterly.
The agent returned later that day with a warrant to take the baby — just to the hospital for a full exam, Langwell and Hodek initially thought. Langwell insisted on riding along in the car with the baby. Hodek and his mother followed behind. Hodek says hospital workers then attempted to catheterize the baby to procure a urine sample for a drug test. "I've worked as a medic and seen a lot of terrible things, but this I can hardly even talk about," Hodek says. "They tried eight times to catheterize my one-day-old baby." Hodek's mother covered her own head with a blanket to try to block out the baby's screaming. The hospital couldn't comment on particulars of Langwell's case, but according to the welfare report, "The hospital was unable to secure a urine sample from the infant."
Langwell and Hodek thought at that point that the baby was coming home with them, but the caseworker said the baby was being placed into protective foster care. Langwell, who now understood they thought she was on drugs, says she fell to her knees in the hospital. "Drug test me right now!" she said. "I can prove I'm not on drugs!" According to the agent's report, Hodek, who is 6-foot-4, seemed to be under the influence and became "hostile." He denies the first charge, but not the second. "Was I hostile?" he says. "Sure. They were taking my baby girl."
Langwell describes the seven days that followed as the worst of her life. "They took my baby from me. I sat there for a week and just cried," she says. "Some days I didn't get dressed. I didn't eat. I made myself eat one meal a day to keep up my strength and to keep my milk supply up." She and Hodek stayed in constant touch with the agency, trying to get the baby back, and attended a hearing at which she learned that the court had appointed separate lawyers for Langwell and her baby. She pumped regularly, and the caseworker picked up the milk. Langwell says she thought, "If she can't have my arms, she can have my milk." But according to the report, her caseworker told her that the milk would be kept frozen until the mother produced a negative drug test.
Langwell's mother, Jean Cinq-Mars, says that week was "heartbreaking" and describes her daughter as "a wonderful mom." When her two older children came home from a vacation with their father, they were confused about why the baby wasn't there. "We were running through the house looking for her," says Langwell's teenage daughter. Langwell's son reports that he was "really mad that they took [his] sister." Both say they are fond of Hodek and excited about the new baby. After a few days, Langwell says, "It was almost like being pregnant and giving birth had been a dream, like it wasn't real."
Sara Ainsworth, the director of legal advocacy for the group National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), says Langwell's story is an example of how the behavior of new mothers, especially poor ones, and especially those of whom drug use is suspected, can come under intense scrutiny. In a 2011 statement, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wrote, "A disturbing trend in legal actions and policies is the criminalization of substance abuse during pregnancy." Ainsworth says Langwell's story is also an especially vivid example of how traumatic CPS involvement can be to a new mother.
"We often see the extremely problematic 'If you test positive for a drug, we're going to take the baby' cases," Ainsworth says, "but this is a next step: 'If we think you used a drug because of your poverty or your conduct, then we're going to step in.'" As described in a recent New York Times op-ed, NAPW has documented hundreds of cases in which pregnant women have been charged with crimes based on the rationale that "fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses are persons or at least have separate rights that must be protected by the state." In July, Tennessee began enforcing a new law under which women can be prosecuted for assault if they use drugs during pregnancy. Since December 2013, Alabama has formally accepted the judicial interpretation of the word "child" in its child abuse law to also mean "fetus." As a result, in that state, there have been some 130 arrests of pregnant women and new mothers in the past 12 months.
New mothers suspected of drug use do not face criminal justice or child welfare involvement only in conservative Southern states. In September, the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton heard the case of Y.N., a new mother who was charged with child abuse when it was found that she had taken oxycodone and methadone during her pregnancy. "You have laws in conservative states that you're not going to see pass in more liberal ones," says Ainsworth, "but child welfare is operating under the radar." Ainsworth says there are no good numbers, but that anecdotally, NAPW has seen a surge in both criminal prosecution and child welfare involvement for new mothers.
While arrest is generally considered a more extreme response, child removal can prove at least as upsetting to a family. According to the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, cases like Langwell's are not uncommon. According to one of the group's position papers, "Contrary to the common stereotype, most parents who lose their children to foster care are neither brutally abusive nor hopelessly addicted. Far more common are cases in which a family's poverty has been confused with child 'neglect.'" The group's rough estimate is that half the children in foster care on any given day could be safely in their own homes if the right kind of help were available to their families.
During that first week of her baby's life, in the course of the phone calls and appointments with the caseworker, Langwell was given a criminal background check and a hair follicle drug test (which can determine if someone has used any drugs in the prior 30 to 90 days). Eventually, there was another court date and Langwell's baby was returned to her. Langwell never met the foster mother with whom the baby spent her first week. "They just handed us back the baby by the parking lot," says Cinq-Mars, Langwell's mother. "'Here's your baby,' like, 'Here's that thing you ordered.'"
"It's legalized kidnapping," Langwell says. "I thought it was some horrible joke. You are guilty until you prove your innocence. Who cares that they slandered my name? But they took my daughter for the first week of her life and put her with a stranger." Ironically, among the paperwork Langwell has received from the court are several pages about baby care that included a section titled "Bonding." The paperwork also includes a mention of Langwell's hair follicle drug test results: negative.
"Getting her back was the happiest thing," Langwell says, "but sad too, because her dad had to move out." (According to the caseworker's report, Langwell said Hodek lives in Los Angeles, but she says the caseworker misunderstood her.) The agency has yet to complete its investigation of the baby's father, who revealed to investigators that he takes prescription medication for his work injury and for anxiety. When the caseworker asked about his criminal history, Hodek admitted to a petty theft conviction. Court documents in the child welfare case list several additional arrests from his past, including two for drug possession. He now lives in a motel and is allowed to see the baby twice a week for an hour at a time, in a CPS meeting room. In the meantime, he scrolls through photos of his daughter on his phone and makes an effort to comply with CPS's directives, which include going to therapy and getting new prescriptions for his medication. (He says the pills he has now were prescribed two years ago.) "When you're dangling someone's child on the end of the hook, you'll do or say anything," Hodek says. "'I stole the Lindberg baby! I was on the grassy knoll! Now can I see my baby? Every day that goes by I'm missing more firsts." Langwell says she's been told Hodek may be permitted to move back home this spring if he complies with all the agency's requirements.
Now at home with her mother, sister, and brother, the baby, who is calm and smiley, is already sitting up in her purple Bumbo chair, ignoring Baby Einstein videos to gaze at her mother's face, and laughing in the car seat when her siblings tickle her feet. Cramming groceries into her already-stuffed freezer, Langwell says, "You know what's funny? They [the welfare agency] were here two weeks ago for a house check and said they needed to make sure there was enough food for 24 hours. I said, 'I shop at Costco. I can barely fit anything else in my fridge. I have two weeks' worth of barbecue sauce alone.' They also made me undress the baby all the way to show that she didn't have any bruises. I said, 'Couldn't you have thought of that a few minutes ago when I was changing her diaper?'" She doesn't know how much longer the monthly checks will last.
When I approached the child welfare agent who made the removal in Langwell's case at the Riverside County office, she said that confidentiality regulations prohibited her from discussing specific cases, but Jennie Pettet, assistant director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, Children's Services Division, did speak to Cosmopolitan.com about the county's child removal process.
"The Juvenile Court upholds approximately 98 percent of our actions to remove children from their homes based on evidence presented," Pettet says, meaning that in about 2 percent of the cases where a removal has occurred, the judge will return the child to the home of a parent. She explained that "a lot goes into the decision to remove," including the social worker's risk and safety assessment, consultation with a supervisor, and — in cases like Langwell's, where a warrant is needed — a judge's sign-off. According to Pettet, there is a "global assessment," and no single issue — drug use, leaving the hospital early — would be considered in and of itself sufficient to warrant removal. "We work closely with families to prevent removal of a child whenever possible," she says.
And yet, Ainsworth of NAPW says Langwell's case is emblematic of something she sees happening with increasing frequency around the country. "Women — even women in more politically liberal states like California and even women who have broken no laws — can find themselves trapped in this kind of nightmare scenario," Ainsworth says. "This really could happen to you, and it's really unfair even if it doesn't happen to you."
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
It might be a process to be released at your hospital but it sure doesn't have to be. Mothers who deliver at birth centers routinely go home within a few hours after birth and follow up in the office with their OB and pedis.
Is Riverside CPS going to start taking all those babies away, too?
I had DS2 at 11 AM Monday and when I told them that I wanted to go home the next morning they looked at me like I had two heads. They finally let me go Tuesday afternoon but it was a hassle to say the least. I don't understand why, with an uncomplicated birth, a healthy mother and child cant go home when they want.
Post by mrsdewinter on Dec 5, 2014 10:56:57 GMT -5
I delivered my third baby at 5 am and my doctor asked me that same day if I wanted to go home. I opted to stay overnight. If the baby was healthy and this was really the sole reason CPS took her away, that is awful.
My first and second were born in a birth center and I went home 4-5 hours after birth. They called to check in with us, gave us plenty of instructions, and we had to come in a few times in the first 2 weeks I think to make sure everything was going well. My third was born in a hospital and my doctor let us go home after 24 hours even though the nurses were not happy about it. Apparently 24 hours is the bare minimum, and I also had a list of things to get done first like hearing test, baby care class, etc. It was kind of stressful but I never considered it an option to go against that.
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
The hospital required you to watch videos? On what?
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
The hospital required you to watch videos? On what?
We had to show we had a carseat. That's it.
I had to watch videos on PPD (that I thought was a good thing) and shaken baby syndrome before I could leave with my first.
I was released within 24 hours after I had my youngest. I was living in a tent with three kids and XH and the hospital (and I) couldn't get hold of him to come pick me and the baby up because cell phones weren't a thing back then. He came to visit and ended up taking us home, about four hours after they told me it was time to go. I couldn't even get on welfare at the time and the only person who ever came was an investigator who was checking to see if I was trying to defraud the welfare system. My how times have changed.
Post by downtoearth on Dec 5, 2014 11:58:07 GMT -5
This is freaky because even if a mom refuses treatment for a child, they shouldn't be just taken away!
I was totally that person who threatened to walk out b/c they were taking too long for release in the hospital. We asked to leave at 9pm the night of the birth (had the baby at 5amish), but they asked us to stay "until 8am." We agreed. We weren't out of there until 5pm that day - nope, no bilichecks, no baby in the nursery, had a visit from a lactation nurse who stayed 4 min said, "Looks like you two have it, he already weighs more. You're good." Never saw a doc/midwife after the day of the birth b/c she had already said I could go whenever and signed my papers in front of me. The pediatrician checked him out for a second and third time b/c we hadn't been released and he was around and said he "liked coming in our room" since we were just relaxing and watching soccer. I had asked many nurses about leaving and finally at 4pm was walking out on my own when I was stopped to wait for a new shift nurse to sign me out. I waited almost 40-min and then was reprimanded for walking instead of riding in a wheelchair to sign the final papers at the nurses station. The people were all nice, just terribly slow.
With the second kid, I had him in a freestanding birth center at 7am, went to the hospital for a quick 4th degree tear repair in the mat. ward (about 2 hours with the baby just hanging with dad and I nursed him while we waited for my numbing meds to wear off), then asked to leave, proved I could pee and left within 30-min of asking. I was home in my own bed before 5pm that same day. That hospital was way more efficient and better.
The third kid - totally different hospital also and the one obgyn practices here said "the new management at the hospital would not let them release a baby and mom home for the same day as delivery, but the mom was free to go and leave the child overnight." One nurse, who is a friend of my ILs at the hospital said that it was "a money decision" that was going to hurt the hospital b/c the policies had changed so much in the 9 months of new management. And the other obgyn practice was hesitant to consider it, but said it could be an option "if all the stars aligned we could do it." They were very kind in the way they approached it, but I didn't use the hospital and did a homebirth.
Just goes to show you that some hospitals are very reasonable and patient-oriented and some suck donkey balls.
I was released within 24 hours after I had my youngest. I was living in a tent with three kids and XH and the hospital (and I) couldn't get hold of him to come pick me and the baby up because cell phones weren't a thing back then. He came to visit and ended up taking us home, about four hours after they told me it was time to go. I couldn't even get on welfare at the time and the only person who ever came was an investigator who was checking to see if I was trying to defraud the welfare system. My how times have changed.
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
The hospital required you to watch videos? On what?
We had to show we had a carseat. That's it.
We had to watch one about "the period of purple crying" or something. It was basically about how to soothe a crying baby and not shake them.
So, when DD1 arrived 5 weeks early, a social worker came to visit us the next day under the guise of seeing if we qualified for any services. Except the first 2/3 of the interview were questions very obviously designed to determine whether drug use or physical abuse were the cause of prematurity, even though there was nothing in my medical records to indicate either.
Then the social worker found out we both had graduate degrees and all of a sudden all was right with the world in her eyes & the interview was quickly terminated with a "oh you probably don't qualify for anything then."
I was offended that (1) she started from the position of thinking we were drug users, and (2) that the mere possession of a degree somehow absolved us of any possible wrongdoing. It was all so weird. DD2 was also born early, but this time no one questioned us, I guess because now I had a history of PTL.
I was released within 24 hours after I had my youngest. I was living in a tent with three kids and XH and the hospital (and I) couldn't get hold of him to come pick me and the baby up because cell phones weren't a thing back then. He came to visit and ended up taking us home, about four hours after they told me it was time to go. I couldn't even get on welfare at the time and the only person who ever came was an investigator who was checking to see if I was trying to defraud the welfare system. My how times have changed.
Wow. You couldn't get welfare?!
Newp. Not until I told them XH had moved out and it was just me and the kids. He was a disabled vet but receiving a small pension that didn't even cover rent and they denied us multiple times for myriad reasons. I made a blog page about it once-upon-a-time when I posted about it before and someone wanted to link it. It's my whole one-page blog. I don't have an interesting enough life to actually spend time typing about how boring my life is. Woke up, ate cereal, helped at the school, came home. missclocksblog.wordpress.com/
I haven't gotten far enough into the article to be outraged at CPS, just far enough to be outraged and eyerollie over the author's description of how white bread and well off the mother is so they can build up to outrage that a mother who has a nice home and an exersaucer in her living room could possibly merit a visit from CPS.
But reading the rest, I'm not shocked CPS paid her a visit and I'm actually not even outraged. It wasn't one thing that merited the end result. It was a series of things that merited a series of responses. It's not like she checked out AMA and then the next step was to take her baby.
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
The hospital required you to watch videos? On what?
We had to show we had a carseat. That's it.
I had to watch one on shaken baby syndrome, one on infant CPR, and another on breastfeeding since it's a "baby friendly" hospital. I didn't have to watch any when I delivered DD, but that was at a different hospital and 5 years ago.
I didn't finish the videos. Having the tv on stressed me out. Luckily no one called CPS.
I haven't gotten far enough into the article to be outraged at CPS, just far enough to be outraged and eyerollie over the author's description of how white bread and well off the mother is so they can build up to outrage that a mother who has a nice home and an exersaucer in her living room could possibly merit a visit from CPS.
But reading the rest, I'm not shocked CPS paid her a visit and I'm actually not even outraged. It wasn't one thing that merited the end result. It was a series of things that merited a series of responses. It's not like she checked out AMA and then the next step was to take her baby.
And I'll sit with HBC here because I could see the steps. And having dealt with CPS for several years they don't just take a newborn willy-nilly.
And yeah, like debatethis said, the birth center near me routinely releases mothers and babies at around 6 hours after birth, assuming things are fine. If things are not find, you can be admitted to the nearby hospital. By virtue of delivering in the birth center you are low risk and have an unmedicated birth. It sounds like this woman also had an unmedicated birth and everything was hunky-dory, but even this baby-friendly hospital was stuck on doing things in a medical mindset.
I wish people would stop bringing up birth centers in this thread. This wasn't a birth center. It was a hospital. I need to understand how she researched hospitals enough to know that this one allowed rooming in but didn't ask about how many patients there were to a room or how long she'd have to stay.
I understand sharing a room sucks. But ducking out of a hospital (not a birthing center) AMA is going to raise some eyebrows. Hell, I would imagine ducking out of a birthing center ahead of the check out process would also raise some eyebrows.
I've never given birth at a birth center but I would imagine there is some kind of counseling involved before they release patients. Also, when I was at the doctor's office for pudding's one month check up, there was a woman who came in with her fresh baby who had given birth at a birthing center just hours ago. They released her and sent her to the pedi. So obviously a release from a birthing center involves more than just packing up your kid and heading out.
Post by pinkdutchtulips on Dec 5, 2014 12:21:58 GMT -5
what medical advice was this vet mom going against ?!?
I had dd at 4p and we were home the next day by 5p ... my ob cleared me and dd had all of her necessary tests and peed/pooped and had a once over by her pedi. the only conditions were that we had a home visit from a nurse at 2 days and check in at the Pedi's office at 3 days .. nbd imo.
I had a super uncomplicated induction w/ a natural delivery. there wasn't any legit reason for me to stay there longer ... if anything the HORRIBLE food made me want to leave faster !!
If you take a baby out of the hospital AMA then the staff is legally mandated to call the police and CPS. This is nothing new or outrageous. We also inform the parents that this will happen if they say they want to take the baby. This policy saves lives more than you can even imagine.
what medical advice was this vet mom going against ?!?
I had dd at 4p and we were home the next day by 5p ... my ob cleared me and dd had all of her necessary tests and peed/pooped and had a once over by her pedi. the only conditions were that we had a home visit from a nurse at 2 days and check in at the Pedi's office at 3 days .. nbd imo.
I had a super uncomplicated induction w/ a natural delivery. there wasn't any legit reason for me to stay there longer ... if anything the HORRIBLE food made me want to leave faster !!
I skimmed a few times so maybe I missed it but did the baby have those necessary tests, the once over from the pedi, peed/pooped, etc before mom bounced? Because it sounds like she didn't and that's why they sent over the case worker. Then the case worker couldn't get that info and I don't see if there was ever a mention of a pedi having seen the baby or that information being relayed to CPS.
Honestly, I think the real reason this all went to shit is because this seemingly white middle class mom just couldn't believe anyone would concerned that she would be a less than stellar mom or that she could possibly be a drug user. That's something only poor people do. Don't you see my new house and my freezer full of costco food?
that's pretty shitty. I'd read about that some in preparation for my L&D. I was released about 30 hours after birth, but we had to take DD into the pedi for weight/bili checks the next few days. It was a PITA, but better than staying at the hospital. I wonder if there couldn't have been a better way to handle this? it's usually quite a process to be released- we had to watch required videos and some other stuff that I"m pretty sure was legally mandated.
Really? Crazy.
I got my prescriptions handed to me and the nurse walked me and the baby out to the car. That was it. I birthed at a hospital, not a center, albeit a hippie hospital.
maybe it was just that their own legal team required it??? some video about purple crying?? there were also several worksheets / checklists that were supposed to be completed.
I forgot about birthing centers. I wonder if there is more to the story or some actual medical reason to keep her & the baby?
Is taking home your baby after a few hours necessarily against medical advice? Or was there something else going on here? I don't know what's typical because I was all 'PLEASE DON'T SEND ME HOME YET WITH THIS CRYING THING!!!!" so I never thought about leaving early.
I really tend to think that there is something else going on here in this story.
Is taking home your baby after a few hours necessarily against medical advice? Or was there something else going on here? I don't know what's typical because I was all 'PLEASE DON'T SEND ME HOME YET WITH THIS CRYING THING!!!!" so I never thought about leaving early.
I really tend to think that there is something else going on here in this story.
Well here's the full article including the fact that CPS gave back the baby but won't let the father live in the house and limits him to supervised visitation in the presence of a CPS worker.
Leaving the hospital without going through the checking out process regardless of what you are in for is considered leaving AMA. At least I think it is.
what medical advice was this vet mom going against ?!?
I had dd at 4p and we were home the next day by 5p ... my ob cleared me and dd had all of her necessary tests and peed/pooped and had a once over by her pedi. the only conditions were that we had a home visit from a nurse at 2 days and check in at the Pedi's office at 3 days .. nbd imo.
I had a super uncomplicated induction w/ a natural delivery. there wasn't any legit reason for me to stay there longer ... if anything the HORRIBLE food made me want to leave faster !!
I skimmed a few times so maybe I missed it but did the baby have those necessary tests, the once over from the pedi, peed/pooped, etc before mom bounced? Because it sounds like she didn't and that's why they sent over the case worker. Then the case worker couldn't get that info and I don't see if there was ever a mention of a pedi having seen the baby or that information being relayed to CPS.
Honestly, I think the real reason this all went to shit is because this seemingly white middle class mom just couldn't believe anyone would concerned that she would be a less than stellar mom or that she could possibly be a drug user. That's something only poor people do. Don't you see my new house and my freezer full of costco food?
This is where I am. There's, what, at least 3 tests that the state here requires before you can take the baby. Hearing, the PKU stick and I think another one. Neither of my boys passed the hearing test on the first try (both have normal hearing. just water in the ears or whatever) and in both cases it required us to stay an extra night.
I have had friends who left same day after a hospital birth but their babies had all their tests. It wasn't AMA. AMA is not a status given because women are delicate flowers after childbirth or whatever.
I feel for this mom cause those first days are important and I get how exhausting the hospital can be. But if you're leaving AMA with an hours old baby, you have to expect SOMETHING is going to happen.
The hospital required you to watch videos? On what?
We had to show we had a carseat. That's it.
I had to watch videos on PPD (that I thought was a good thing) and shaken baby syndrome before I could leave with my first.
We had to do the same thing. A video on the "purple cry", a talk on PPD and a baby care class. I was interviewed by a hospital social worker that asked if I felt safe at home, if our home had adequate heat and other questions along those lines. Apparently it's a county-wide procedure.
I had to watch videos on PPD (that I thought was a good thing) and shaken baby syndrome before I could leave with my first.
We had to do the same thing. A video on the "purple cry", a talk on PPD and a baby care class. I was interviewed by a hospital social worker that asked if I felt safe at home, if our home had adequate heat and other questions along those lines. Apparently it's a county-wide procedure.
You're apparently only supposed to ask poor people, at least if this woman's response was any indication.
The full article also gives information about the behavior the mom, her boyfriend, and grandma exhibited that made the suspect drug use. The article then drives off into the dangers of criminalizing drug use during pregnancy (which I generally agree is problematic) but then goes on to ignore the dangers that might be posed to a newborn if the parents are using drugs.