New Mom Checks Baby Out Early, Next Day Baby Taken Away

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2014 13:10:52 GMT -5 @rennido said:

I was told up front that I could leave the next day (gave birth at 9pm) if I wanted to, but because I was a new mom, the recommended that I stay the full 48 hours. The next time I have a kid, I'll probably only stay the one overnight and skedaddle.

Now that you said this, I do remember them asking me if I wanted to leave or did I want to stay an extra day. I opted for the extra day because I'm lazy lol. But I'm sure if I said, nope, I want to leave, I still would have had to wait to be discharged.

[noradog]

After reading the whole article, I can't get too outraged. On another note, I don't have kids and did not know that there were mandatory videos to be watched before taking your own home. I was aware of Dr. checks adn having to have a car seat.

[mpc]

in the interest of participating...

Dec 5, 2014 10:15:10 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

"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.

Philosophical question here. This sounds like there's basically a 2% error rate with removing children from the home. If there's going to be 2% error (and there will be error, with us being human and all) then would we rather have it be children taken away that shouldn't have been? or children left in a situation that they really should've been removed from?

[statlerwaldorf]

There can be reasons for a newborn to need to stay in the hospital after delivery. DS was 11 lbs 6 oz when he was born, so he needed to stay for at least 24 hours to have his blood sugar monitored. I would expect the hospital to call cps if I would've taken him before the testing was complete. If his glucose levels weren't normal, it could've been a dangerous situation.

[phdprocrastinator]

Dec 5, 2014 12:54:18 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

Dec 5, 2014 12:29:16 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

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.

I just had dd#2 and was told moms were essentially allowed to stay because babies need the tests done at 24 hours post delivery. Although I had some complications myself that needed follow up, I could have requested to leave earlier but there was a checklist of steps to complete before taking did.

It seems like taking her early would have been difficult.

[phdprocrastinator]

Dec 5, 2014 13:32:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

All I can say is that the thought of them cathetering an apparently healthy one day old just to see if the mother may have done drugs at some point had me sweating and nauseated. I would have lost my everloving mind if they were doing that to my child without medical reason. OMG. ACK!

I agree with this!

[cinnamoncox]

Dec 5, 2014 13:32:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

All I can say is that the thought of them cathetering an apparently healthy one day old just to see if the mother may have done drugs at some point had me sweating and nauseated. I would have lost my everloving mind if they were doing that to my child without medical reason. OMG. ACK!

Yes, this seemed overboard to me, and almost cruel to the baby. I mean, unless there's more I haven't read that the baby showed signs of possibly having been born addicted, putting a one day old baby through that is unnecessary. I would've been a wreck too. Hell, when they were picking one if my four day old's heel for some test I was very upset. I cannot imagine my one day old going through this because they suspected something of me.

Why couldn't blood test the mom? Or give her a drink and re swab her (her saliva was too thick the first time?)

Poor baby.

I didn't have to watch any videos or do any sort of class with any of my three, the boy 16 years ago or the twins four years ago. I didn't know that was a thing.

[downtoearth]

Dec 5, 2014 12:12:58 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

Dec 5, 2014 11:59:25 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

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/

That is really insightful and disheartening at the same time. I think so many urban legends of welfare queens are around so people forget that anyone who is middle to lower on the socioeconomic ladder can slip into needing assistance by just one little change in their life. There is no buffer for bad stuff happening.

[Deleted]

I gave birth to C at 4am on Saturday. I wanted to go home desperately on Sunday, but the pedi was very adamant that C stay a second night. The argument was that the biggest risk for quick changes/issues in newborns was within the first 48hrs after birth and they wanted to simply track vitals. I felt like going home early would make us look like selfish parents who just wanted a comfy bed so I stayed. And we both had to watch a video on shaken baby, along with a whole packet of paperwork for social security, birth certificate, etc, and attend a breakfast the morning of checkout which reviewed things like ppd, feeding, bathing, etc; even a 2nd and 3rd time mom was in the room with me. We then had a pedi visit 48hrs and 1 week later, primarily for weight checks and our questions.

Hearing these stories is both heartbreaking thinking about the time lost with a new child, and angering that these situation get attention and action when others are ignored. I know CPS is typically understaffed, overworked, underpaid, etc, but it just feels so broken when you know children are caught in these realities.

[meshaliuknits]

I kinda liked staying in the hospital. Someone brought me tasty food and drink. I didn't have to clean anything. I got to watch whatever the hell I wanted on tv. Someone made sure I was okay. I had a good view of the fireworks from my room (2nd baby only).

It was kind of nice.

[downtoearth]

And maybe I'm skewed bc I did two births outside a traditional hospital setting, but the laws DO NOT require that you stay for tests at the hospital. Even the SS stuff and birth certificate are not legally required to be filled out before you leave.  They try to make it sound like that, but it's not a law.  You have a certain period of time - maybe a month, I think.  I turned one in almost a month after having a kid once.  Yes, a hospital has it's own safety checks for a discharge, but it's not illegal to go without the hearing or PKU test in the hospital. That is not a law, just hospital policy. That's not the case here, it sounds like when she left early, a nurse might have mentioned to CPS that she was worried about drug use - right or wrong someone, a nurse or the CPS person, made that assumption.

I'm ok putting some of the responsibility for this mistake back on CPS and the hospital - they made some judgements that were erring on assumptions and those turned out to be wrong and caused some pain to a new family. I'm trying to see that the mom also has culpability too, but it keeps sounding like, "act proper and do what hospitals say without question," which is wrong also. I give her credit that she took the saliva test and wasn't combative, so I think she does deserve some apology.

CPS usually assumes the worst of parents b/c they see the worst of parents more often than the good. My friend who works in child protective services fully agrees that she wants to remain unbiased in every case, but after working for almost 2 decades, she cares so much more for the children than the parents and sometimes it wears on her so she forgets to give someone the benefit of listening to them without judgement. She's a kind, good person as most are in CPS, but she's not infallible and has expressed that it's hard to not judge families and homes she encounters in her job.

[Alyssa]

CPS needs to figure out their priorities.  Too often I hear of babies and toddlers being handed back to abusive households where they are ultimately murdered. 

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2014 10:33:14 GMT -5 debatethis said:

Dec 5, 2014 10:24:14 GMT -5 zoegirltx said:

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?

Right. My sister was home 4 hours after her baby was born.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2014 13:32:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

All I can say is that the thought of them cathetering an apparently healthy one day old just to see if the mother may have done drugs at some point had me sweating and nauseated. I would have lost my everloving mind if they were doing that to my child without medical reason. OMG. ACK!

I was confused by this too. Couldn't they do a blood draw? That seems less horrible.

[nessness]

Dec 5, 2014 11:33:51 GMT -5 mouse said:

Dec 5, 2014 10:24:14 GMT -5 zoegirltx said:

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 a 30-minute video on infant care. It included things like car seat safety, safe sleep, bathing, etc.

[elleblue]

Dec 5, 2014 13:32:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

All I can say is that the thought of them cathetering an apparently healthy one day old just to see if the mother may have done drugs at some point had me sweating and nauseated. I would have lost my everloving mind if they were doing that to my child without medical reason. OMG. ACK!

I'm most upset by this. Granted, I haven't yet had a baby so I don't know how unusual this is, but it seems unnecessarily cruel to continue to attempt to cath the baby so many times when it just isn't happening. 

[missymoose]

Holy crap. We left after 6 hours and got to spend our night in our own beds thank heavens.

The nurse at home program comes and checks every baby and moms stitches/incision/uterus the next day, and 2 days and until the baby gains weight. If you have questions or feeding problems you can ask the nurse.

I am horrified that anyone should have to jump through fucking hoops after having a HUMAN COME OUT OF YOUR BODY.

sad face/ privilege check?

[WOT?*]

Dec 5, 2014 14:15:17 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

I kinda liked staying in the hospital. Someone brought me tasty food and drink. I didn't have to clean anything. I got to watch whatever the hell I wanted on tv. Someone made sure I was okay. I had a good view of the fireworks from my room (2nd baby only).

It was kind of nice.

Me too, except with DS1, which was the only time I recall taking a bite of food and spitting it back out. I swear to this day the steak was green. It sure tasted like it. And this was at the *civilian* hospital. The food at the military hospitals was pretty darn good.

[meltoine]

I used to get all riled up about these stories, but they come across my feeds often now. I'm a doula and a childbirth educator, so I cross paths with lots of super-crunchy people who get really passionate about stories like this. I've noticed that in most of them, if you read a few different articles about the case, they allude to a lot more going on than the headline suggests.

Unfortunately it has lead to me to ignore most, if not all, of them because the articles are always written based on interviews with the parents and CPS does not defend their actions publicly.

[beermathmama]

Dec 5, 2014 11:33:51 GMT -5 mouse said:

Dec 5, 2014 10:24:14 GMT -5 zoegirltx said:

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.

Because we weren't married at the time, my husband had to watch a video explaining that he did not have to claim the child if it wasn't really his and that he really needed to think about signing the birth certificate because he would be responsible for the kid forever.  It was pretty hilarious.

[sam19]

Dec 5, 2014 12:47:12 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

Dec 5, 2014 12:43:21 GMT -5 ttt said:

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.

www.redbookmag.com/kids-family/blogs/mom-blog/tiffany-langwell-baby-cosmo?src=spr_FBPAGE&spr_id=1441_118558402

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.

Yea based on the continued supervised visits for the dad, I'm going to assume there is a lot more to this story than her just leaving early.

[jeaniebueller]

Dec 5, 2014 13:32:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

All I can say is that the thought of them cathetering an apparently healthy one day old just to see if the mother may have done drugs at some point had me sweating and nauseated. I would have lost my everloving mind if they were doing that to my child without medical reason. OMG. ACK!

I am not sure I believe they would cath a newborn for this reason. Don't they usually just test the meconium?

[pugz]

this doesn't really surprise me. The nurses on L&D and mother/baby units are quick to hotline moms if they are not cooperative or if anything seems "off". Young moms, non-white moms, and poor moms are more likely to be prejudiced against.

[picksthemusic]

Yeah, I read an article recently that my crazy SIL liked on FB, and while it was an INCREDIBLY biased article (it kept reiterating that the baby was breastfed and homebirthed), it was about CPS coming in and taking the newborn baby. And while I don't have any personal experience with CPS, I know they don't just come and take a newborn baby because the mom homebirthed them (or in this case 'refused' a drug test). There are other things at play here, we just don't know what they are.

[meij]

Dec 5, 2014 19:38:31 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Yeah, I read an article recently that my crazy SIL liked on FB, and while it was an INCREDIBLY biased article (it kept reiterating that the baby was breastfed and homebirthed), it was about CPS coming in and taking the newborn baby. And while I don't have any personal experience with CPS, I know they don't just come and take a newborn baby because the mom homebirthed them (or in this case 'refused' a drug test). There are other things at play here, we just don't know what they are.

Was it the one in Washington? Where the mom was wearing one baby on her back and softly strumming her guitar to the other baby when CPS showed up? Such a biased article. There was SO much more to that story.

[busybodyk]

This is so upsetting. I hated staying in the hospital after I had my baby girl 17 months ago. And I had a private room. I always say I will leave after one night if I have another baby. I can't imagine something like this happening. What a nightmare.

[picksthemusic]

Dec 5, 2014 20:04:36 GMT -5 meij said:

Dec 5, 2014 19:38:31 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Yeah, I read an article recently that my crazy SIL liked on FB, and while it was an INCREDIBLY biased article (it kept reiterating that the baby was breastfed and homebirthed), it was about CPS coming in and taking the newborn baby. And while I don't have any personal experience with CPS, I know they don't just come and take a newborn baby because the mom homebirthed them (or in this case 'refused' a drug test). There are other things at play here, we just don't know what they are.

Was it the one in Washington? Where the mom was wearing one baby on her back and softly strumming her guitar to the other baby when CPS showed up? Such a biased article. There was SO much more to that story.

Yep, that one. The local news covered the court hearing tonight and the baby was returned to the parents. Turns out the homebirth was unattended. That in and of itself would warrant a CPS call in my book. Talk about risk! And I am usually in support of home birth.

[bina]

Now i'm new to posting my actual opinions a lot, but I get really scared when anyone gets forced into going to or staying in a hospital against their will. You want to have a unattended home birth because you feel that's the best situation for your family. WHO AM I TO SAY ANY DIFFERENT. I mean i do think children should be protected absolutely, and an unattended home birth would never be my choice, but did they have any other reasons to suspect abuse/neglect? Family or friends witnessing or reporting? I just dont feel like CPS or the Hospital staff should be able to take those decisions away or force them one way or another. AMA = against medical ADVICE right?

[StrawberryBlondie]

Dec 5, 2014 20:04:36 GMT -5 meij said:

Dec 5, 2014 19:38:31 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Yeah, I read an article recently that my crazy SIL liked on FB, and while it was an INCREDIBLY biased article (it kept reiterating that the baby was breastfed and homebirthed), it was about CPS coming in and taking the newborn baby. And while I don't have any personal experience with CPS, I know they don't just come and take a newborn baby because the mom homebirthed them (or in this case 'refused' a drug test). There are other things at play here, we just don't know what they are.

Was it the one in Washington? Where the mom was wearing one baby on her back and softly strumming her guitar to the other baby when CPS showed up? Such a biased article. There was SO much more to that story.

Ugh. One of my friends believes to her core that CPS kidnapped those children. To the point that it seems her whole beef is "but she was breastfeeding!!!!"

[curbsideprophet]

This is horrible and just makes me sad. I can not imagine being separated from my newborn like that. The part about trying to a urine sample from the baby is awful.