Recent Birth Experience

lambsbottom

I'm completely flabergasted at what happened with a couple in my old congregation recently. They are still active.

The guy messages me that they had their baby and will be at a local hospital for the next couple days. So I say that I will try and swing by. I swing by and say hi to him, wife, and baby. They tell me the story of how she went into labor and the hospital checked her blood levels immediately (no bleeding yet). Horrible levels regarding safety for pregnancy. They tell me they had the levels checked at the third trimester and everything was fine. She had to refuse petocin and the older JW sisters were helping her contract with "cranial sacral" and other "natural methods". She did all this because the Dr.s started asking her "how serious are you about the blood issue". Petocin can cause such strong contractions that it can cause complications and c-sections are sometimes necessary. the doctor and themselves were scared that she wouldn't survive the c-section. So, she had 22 hours of hard labor because she wouldn't take petocin! gah!!!!!!!

my question is: why are the congregation elders not checking with EVERY pregnant JW woman to make sure she gets blood work right before expected labor dates!? didn't they have a leaked document regarding this a couple years ago?

DesirousOfChange

They don't give a shit about really helping people (unless they can count it as FS time). They only care about being big shot Gestapo agents and flexing their power.

Big fish. Little pond.

Doc

Simon

Yeah, when we were having ours and there were some complications there was no concern, just "are you going to accept blood?!?" and later "so did you accept blood?!?"

There are lots of busy bodies who make their life complete by making someone else's life worse than their's. That seems to be their main focus.

stuckinarut2

I also am amazed when I hear the local elders talk about those going in for birth.

The comments are always focussed on "we are here to help you if any blood issues come up"

Like come on!! What about just being there to support a friend bringing a new life into the world???

Crazyguy

Biggest problem is the Doctors getting in the way of a natural child birth. If they would of let the mother walk around and maybe have some wine things probably would of progressed more quickly. If this was her first baby it tends to take longer. Bottom line the doctors really want to have to preform a C-section because then they make some serious coin.

As for the elders their just a bunch of idiots!!

Mad Irishman

People are responsible for their own decisions and welfare in these type of situations. I've never heard of elders being part of child birth pre-natal care. It would never have occurred to me to have them involved and I can't imagine 99.9 percent of people wanting them involved.

And my aunt was in labor for 48 hours. Can't imagine that.

OrphanCrow

Crazyguy9 hours agoBiggest problem is the Doctors getting in the way of a natural child birth. If they would of let the mother walk around and maybe have some wine things probably would of progressed more quickly. If this was her first baby it tends to take longer. Bottom line the doctors really want to have to preform a C-section because then they make some serious coin.

??? walk around and have some wine??? and that is supposed to alleviate 22 hours of hard labor???

You cannot, and should not, make evaluations on a woman's experience with child birth when you have a limited amount of information about her situation.

Your comment is irresponsible and reflects a pre-disposed bias towards medical science and women's health issues.

OrphanCrow

my question is: why are the congregation elders not checking with EVERY pregnant JW woman to make sure she gets blood work right before expected labor dates!? didn't they have a leaked document regarding this a couple years ago?

The blood work that the elders were encouraging pregnant women to get done a few years ago, had to do with identifying the JW women who were RH negative.

In 2010, there was a clinical trial being sponsored by InfaCare Pharmaceuticals Corporation. The trial was by invitation only and the JW community fit the parameters of the study group perfectly. The elders and HLC would have been actively recruiting for subjects to enter into the clinical trial for Stantate at that time.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01183988?term=jehovah%27s+witnesses&rank=1

Stantate, the drug that was being tested on JW babies, has since received approval for compassionate use.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00076960?term=jehovah%27s+witnesses&rank=2

And once again, the JW community has contributed to a pharmaceutical company's quest to get a drug onto the market.

Step 1 - clinical trial approved by FDA

Step 2 - get JW mamas and babies to enroll

Step 3 - apply for the drug to get 'compassionate use' status for expanded access

Step 3 is the end goal. The study that was approved for Step 1 has yet to be published, and we do not know the safety or efficacy of the drug. But that doesn't matter - the drug is 'needed' by the JW women, so it now can be manufactured and sold for use.

"Compassionate Use" status is not equivalent to "safe and effective".

Xanthippe

So sad that pregnant mothers and their husbands have to go through all the extra stress that this cult lays on them with the worry of refusing blood. I'm not sure why the doctors were so worried about the c-section and your friend needing blood or not surviving.

I had a c-section because I had preeclampsia and my blood tests showed my kidneys and liver were starting to shut down. Preeclampsia was the main cause of maternal death not so long ago before regular blood pressure checks and blood tests were implemented but there was no blood transfusion suggested, I just had saline.

Really sad your friends were put though this additional pain and stress because of a religious belief. I hope mother and baby are doing well.

millie210

Im all for elder bashing when warranted but in this case, it is the responsibility of the Obstetrician to run labs on his patient to check blood values in late pregnancy. The fact that her 3rd trimester labs were fine but her admission tests days or weeks later were not indicates some circumstances we are not privy to obviously.

Pitocin is a hormone given to (in laymans terms) speed up labor. It is not natural for this to occur, this is a man made intervention.

As with all interventions, one side effect can be increased fetal stress leading to "distress" necessitating more intervention in the form of a C-section.

A woman not getting pitocin in not unusual treatment. Only in recent years has this become popular and some women still refuse it due to the slight risks that accompany its use.

Why didnt the woman take an epidural if the pain became an issue?

We dont know and we wont know. But that is actually the right question here, not having or not having pitocin.

I have noticed over the years that birth stories are a lot like fishing stories with estimates of length of labor equating to size of fish.

Recent Birth Experience

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