Hospital charges for screaming during child birth

[gingersmom]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/zimbabwe-hospital-charges-women-5-for-each-scream-during-childbirth-8705954.html

 

Its sad and funny at the same time. 

 

Its a good thing I didn't give birth in Africa, I would be broke.  :001_smile:

[Guest inoubliable]

Yikes. 

I didn't get charged for screaming, but I did get nurses trying to shame me into being quieter. LOL. They told me that I was frightening the laboring woman next door.

[Word Nerd]

Nurse Ratched kept telling me it was useless to yell and wouldn't help me have the baby any faster. Thanks for the newsflash, lady. I realized it wasn't doing me any good, but it isn't like I was doing it for fun.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I was given an unnecessary episiotomy as punishment for "vocalizing too loudly."  Oh, and the doctor thought I was talking to her when I said (in the throes of crowning) "God, get this baby out of me."  See, they really do think they are God!

[Georgiana Daniels]

The midwife told me to channel the energy I was using on screaming into pushing--best advice EVER!

[fairfarmhand]

If you were a good little patient and took the epidural they kept offering, you wouldn't have felt the need to scream.

 

Honestly, I am a suffer silently person. My dh knows I am really hurting when my eyes are closed, I am breathing quietly and tears are trickling down my face.

 

I only squealed once in my labors, and that was when I was pushing the shoulders out.

[Georgiana Daniels]

I was given an unnecessary episiotomy as punishment for "vocalizing too loudly."  Oh, and the doctor thought I was talking to her when I said (in the throes of crowning) "God, get this baby out of me."  See, they really do think they are God!

 

No way! What did you do when you found out? An unnecessary medical procedure is a big deal.

[twoxcell]

I have heard some that needed to be charged. :lol: Just kidding. ;) I have never screamed while giving birth but I did make some grunting type noises. Especially while pushing out a 10.5 lb baby. I always thought I was being louder than I was and felt bad but everyone assured me I was really mellow.

[dirty ethel rackham]

No way! What did you do when you found out? An unnecessary medical procedure is a big deal.

 

I complained and got laughed at.  They said that I couldn't prove anything and that the doc must have felt I NEEDED an episiotomy. 

 

[Sara in AZ]

If you were a good little patient and took the epidural they kept offering, you wouldn't have felt the need to scream.

 

Honestly, I am a suffer silently person. My dh knows I am really hurting when my eyes are closed, I am breathing quietly and tears are trickling down my face.

 

.

This is me, too. During one of my births I heard the nurses commenting about how quiet I was because "usually the natural ones are really loud" according to them.

[Night Elf]

I'll admit I screamed during the pushing. I couldn't help it, the same way I am when I'm going downhill on a roller coaster. It just starts in the pit of my stomach and comes out through my mouth. If I had tried to keep from screaming I probably would have clinched and had a harder time pushing out the babies!

[G5052]

The midwife told me to channel the energy I was using on screaming into pushing--best advice EVER!

 

Same here.  With a kind voice, my OB said, "Sweetie, I know that it hurts, but this might just go faster if you put the energy where it counts."

 

And she was right.

[texasmama]

I screamed my head off and was chastised during the birth with baby #3 (no meds).   So I stopped screaming and just pushed.

 

Then I got a doula and a different doctor for baby #4 and screamed my head off again while I was pushing.  (no meds)  I yelled as loud as I possibly could during the two deep breaths it took to get her out.  Then I yelled, "Thank you, Jesus!".  No one complained about my baby #4 yelling.  I'm sure I broke some eardrums.

[Laurie4b]

For my first, the nurse kept telling me to shush. She was not helping me breathe, helping me focus, just telling me to shush. She said, "It's not helping." "IT'S HELPING MEEEEE!"

 

But it's not in the least funny that poor women are charged per scream. Total corruption.

[swellmomma]

I scream during the pushing stage and with my youngest all through transistion and trying not to push in the ambulance.  The second they are out I am happy and apologetic but I can not help my screaming.  I would be broke and in debt for years if they charged me.

I know my mom screamed with me, and the nurses told her she had to stop because she was scaring the other women.

Other than dd13 who was a vacuum extraction(and I promise I screamed lots for that one) my other kids were out in a matter of minutes when I started pushing.  My vacuum extraction cut me inside(like a scrape cut) from opening to cervix, and I had 2nd degree tearing.  There was lots of screaming

And like I said my youngest I was in an ambulance trying not to push when I really needed to with back labor, I screamed through each of those contractions until I couldn't anymore and she was crowning.  I felt so bad for the 2 young EMTs driving me.  Trapped in that box listening to my screams but I couldn't help it. 

I let out pretty good screams when I get hurt at home too, it is just my pain response.  That and trying to back up the bed to get away from it lol

[VeganCupcake]

I roared during my DD's birth. I did a lot of aaaaaahhhing during DS's. Sometimes it might have sounded like some really good teA. :) I found the aaaaahhhing especially to be very helpful. Low, open sounds to relax those sphincters!

[Xuzi]

It took too much concentration to NOT scream when I was pushing out my second. I pushed much better once I started ignoring the annoying nurse who was trying to get me to be quiet. :p

[Parrothead]

They kept telling me I was screaming. But it was a very loud groaning. My mouth was barely open.

[Susan in TN]

Good grief.  I was perfectly quiet during the 1.5 hours of hard, fully dialated labor waiting for my last baby to descend, who was determined to stay at -3.  So I finally sat straight up and in 20 minutes of hellish torture, my 9lb, 6oz baby moved from -3 to ready to push which was an incredible relief.  That's when the screaming stopped. 

 

Oh, and there was a newspaper reporter/photographer sitting out in the hallway the entire time.  She was doing a story on my natural childbirth.  I hope I didn't scare her too much :).

[countrygal]

There is a difference between "loud" patients who are just making noise... ok, contractions hurt, but if you are only 3 cm, nobody wants to hear you scream for the next 8 hours!!! But when it comes to the end, how can you stop yourself from it? I only got loud at the very end. Mine was more of a grunting, too. I wonder if they charge for grunting as well? Maybe the are just charging for the commotion-causers!

[LucyStoner]

I didn't yell or scream a lot in labor and it was long and drawn out with much useless pushing while fully dilated.  But man did I ever I scream at them when they tried to insist that re-dosing my epidural which was only working on 1/2 of my body would be sufficient for giving my a c-section.  I made them pull the whole thing and give me a spinal.  They looked at me like I was crazy.  When the OR anesthesiologist   (a new character in my melodrama) said that "this epidural looks a little dodgy", I was vindicated.  Yes, I will scream at you if you propose slicing me open while I am in possession of all feeling on one side of my body and I have already been there for several shift changes.  Deal.with.it.  I am sure the screams from feeling an incision would be...worse.  

[LucyStoner]

With my second they screwed up the epi.  I felt everything.  They totally totally screwed it up.  I was beyond angry.  They left the shunt in because I was having a tubal the next day.  They were going to do the tubal with an epi.  I said no, knock me out.  They tried to talk me out of it and I insisted.  They first tried to do the epi and the fluid ran all down my back because the shunt was not in.  So I was right.  So they knocked me out.

 

See, mama knows best.  

[Occasionally]

Are they paying someone to keep a tally?

[LucyStoner]

Are they paying someone to keep a tally?

What a job.  And where does one scream start and the next begin?  

 

There is AGHHHHUG!

 

and then there is AGGGGGGGGGUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHFRACKFRACKFRACKAHHHHHHHHHHGGUGGGUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

Are the short ones 3 for 1?  

[swellmomma]

They kept telling me I was screaming. But it was a very loud groaning. My mouth was barely open.

My screams had gritted teeth and barely open mouth too, but I wish they were just loud groaning lol, they were loud, high pitched and primal.  I was told after my 4th by the nurse that was in the ambulance with me that I sounded like a big wild cat screaming/yowling when I apologized for my screaming after she was born.

[myfunnybunch]

Yikes. 

 

I didn't get charged for screaming, but I did get nurses trying to shame me into being quieter. LOL. They told me that I was frightening the laboring woman next door.

 

My older grumpy nurse said that too. Although my noise was a more guttural groan/yell. I didn't much care what the people in the hallway or the other rooms thought of me right about then. I was too busy having a baby.

 

And a very rational part of me thought, "I think she's being a jerk, but I'll try to be quiet." It didn't work for me. It was more of a focus noise pushing all of my energy were it needed to go. When I was trying to be quiet, my focus was on being quiet not on pushing.

 

The young nurse intern totally got that and when I started again, she quietly said, "Good job, keep pushing." Loved her.

 

Cat

[MissShellyA]

Yikes. 

 

I didn't get charged for screaming, but I did get nurses trying to shame me into being quieter. LOL. They told me that I was frightening the laboring woman next door.

 

Oh my god, I'm sorry, but this cracked me up :lol:

[UmMusa]

The midwife told me to channel the energy I was using on screaming into pushing--best advice EVER!

My midwife got in my face and told me the same thing.

[freesia]

Yikes. 

 

I didn't get charged for screaming, but I did get nurses trying to shame me into being quieter. LOL. They told me that I was frightening the laboring woman next door.

Oh, man, you were the woman next door?????????????????????????

[freesia]

My midwife got in my face and told me the same thing.

Mine, too! They must learn it in midwife school.

[redsquirrel]

Charging women for making noise? That is just horrible. I don't see anything funny about it.  Did you read this article?

 

"This fee accompanies a flat $50 delivery cost that all Zimbabwean hospitals charge. Meaning that in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where average annual income per head is around $150, a mother who uttering only a few cries of distress might owe half her annual income as a result of giving birth. 

According to a follow-up report by Transparency International, women who can’t afford these payments are sometimes detained by the hospitals and charged interest until their families pay up."

 

So they are holding women hostage until they pay up.

 

Those poor women.

[Guest inoubliable]

Oh, man, you were the woman next door?????????????????????????

 

Possibly. I also got in trouble for making up all new swear words. 

And then there was the nurse who, mid scream of "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!!!!!", told me "Yes, honey. It does sort of feel like you have to shit, doesn't it?". The other nurse took one look at my face and told that woman to get out because she was fairly certain that I might deck her. 

 

I only had pain meds delivered in the IV for my first. And then they knocked out my contractions. So they stopped and said I'd have to deal with the pain until the doc came in and signed off on another type of medication. Which didn't happen in time. So, yeah. There was no relief. And there was a vacuum. And then forceps. And then an episiotomy. 

[freesia]

Possibly. I also got in trouble for making up all new swear words. 

And then there was the nurse who, mid scream of "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!!!!!", told me "Yes, honey. It does sort of feel like you have to shit, doesn't it?". The other nurse took one look at my face and told that woman to get out because she was fairly certain that I might deck her. 

 

I only had pain meds delivered in the IV for my first. And then they knocked out my contractions. So they stopped and said I'd have to deal with the pain until the doc came in and signed off on another type of medication. Which didn't happen in time. So, yeah. There was no relief. And there was a vacuum. And then forceps. And then an episiotomy.

Oh, wow, I'm sorry. What was that nurse THINKING! I might have decked her.

[8circles]

That's criminal.  Or it should be.

 

I was not a screamer, I suffer silently like a PP.  But there were a few screamers delivering at the same time I was - we all just chuckled about it.  I sure hope nobody was giving them a hard time.  My nurses didn't seem to think it was a bad thing.

[awisha.]

I was given an unnecessary episiotomy as punishment for "vocalizing too loudly." Oh, and the doctor thought I was talking to her when I said (in the throes of crowning) "God, get this baby out of me." See, they really do think they are God!

o.O what in the world... I am so sorry you had to go through that.

[Carrie12345]

I had a nurse yell at me for yelling during my first's birth. Funny enough, he was my only epidural, but I was young and very unprepared for l&d.

I was a quiet birther with the rest. (And not because of that rotten nurse!)

[LostSurprise]

I'm not very loud, but during pushing I do grunt like a man pushing a piano up the stairs. I find it helpful. It centers the physical push.

 

One of the few times I did make a little noise (a little surprised high-pitched...Ah!) my husband said, "come on, it doesn't hurt that bad." 

 

Its a good thing he was out of my reach and the baby was being born. The baby's shoulder tore me at that moment. If looks could kill, I'd be a widow. 

[swellmomma]

I had nursezilla with my second.  She wasn't around for the actual birth, by then the dr had had her removed from my room with a dire warning to not come near me again.  I was a high risk delivery, a VBAC less than 11 months after my section, after a difficult pregnancy and the nurse kept sending me home saying I wasn't in labor.  Dr checked me just as the nurse tried to send me away again and I was at 4.5 cm.  Dr broke my water the nurse griped at her that they didn't have enough staff that night, that I wasn't "allowed" to have the baby until the next day.  Turns out there was staining in the fluid so then the delivery became even more high risk.  The final straw was I made my husband stay at the far side of the room.  At that point I had dealt with early labour for 3 days, I was tired, and hungry and when I am tired and hungry I can rival any 2 year old in grumpiness and can't stand to be touched.  And he was annoying.  So he was banned the far side the room.  The nurse said "don't be stupid, let him rub you back and legs" and she ran her hand up my leg.  Yeah let's just say she didn't know pregnant women had reflexes like that.  I kicked her, in the face.  She pretty much got a grazing kick because she stepped back just as contact started to be made.  The dr was walking in just as it happened and escorted the nurse from my room and told her if she came near me again she would have her fired.

Funny part was I delivered ds9 at a different hospital in a different but neighboring city and that nurse was on duty then.  I took one look at her in the hallway and had it put on my chart that she could not be near me.

I mentioned above I had a vacuum extraction, that was the same delivery as nursezilla.  The dr asked if I wanted an episiotomy to make it easier, my response was "would you like one? you cut me, I cut you" 

Yeah I am not nice when I am in labor.  I become quite feral lol

As for this hospital in Africa, I think it is heinous that they can do that to someone and then hold them hostage until they pay up.  Just another action by corrupt gov't officials.  Despicable.

[LucyStoner]

People often instinctively yell or make noise when doing a very physically demanding task which seems to aid the task- moving a piano, lifting a gold metal weight, hand to hand combat, hoisting a car off of a baby.  I see no reason why women in labor would get less right to yell than anyone else exerting themselves to their limit.  It's childbirth after all and it takes some grit.  

[swellmomma]

Has anyone seen that fb meme that went around for a while.  That the human body was designed to handle x unit of pain and during the moment of crowning the pain levels a woman faces is like 5-6 units higher than that?  Noise whether it is a grunt, groan, howl, scream, whimper whatever is natural if you are experiencing that.

[HRAAB]

My first three births I had no epidural, and I didn't scream. But I nearly broke dh's hand. I think he would have preferred me screaming at the top of my lungs.

 

By the 4th one I got smart and had an epidural. It was twins, and it was the best birth of all.

[HRAAB]

Possibly. I also got in trouble for making up all new swear words. 

And then there was the nurse who, mid scream of "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!!!!!", told me "Yes, honey. It does sort of feel like you have to shit, doesn't it?". The other nurse took one look at my face and told that woman to get out because she was fairly certain that I might deck her. 

 

I only had pain meds delivered in the IV for my first. And then they knocked out my contractions. So they stopped and said I'd have to deal with the pain until the doc came in and signed off on another type of medication. Which didn't happen in time. So, yeah. There was no relief. And there was a vacuum. And then forceps. And then an episiotomy.

Feels like you're sh*tting a 14 lb. bowling ball would be more apt.

 

With my first I had the vacuum, then the episiotomy and then the forceps. Those damn things sounded like 50 lb. salad tongs. She was posterior. No wonder the others births seemed not too bad.

[Guest inoubliable]

Feels like you're sh*tting a 14 lb. bowling ball would be more apt.

 

With my first I had the vacuum, then the episiotomy and then the forceps. Those damn things sounded like 50 lb. salad tongs. She was posterior. No wonder the others births seemed not too bad.

 

*shudder* The forceps. 

 

After that nurse gave me her little line, I could only think "What the hell are you EATING that your bowel movements feel like childbirth?!". My family swears I asked that out loud. I don't recall. 

 

DS12 was less than 7 lbs. I told everyone who would listen afterwards that I would never birth another child again. And I never did. The next two were determined by the OB to be too big to birth. C-sections the both. No regret. 

[trulycrabby]

Frankly, I'm outraged that anyone told a woman giving bith to a child to make less noise. Sorry, it's a painful business, and I believe that vocalization helps increase the power of the push.  We learned this concept in tae kwon do; at the moment of a strike, we make a loud, strong yell that serves to focus power and energy.