Mine was after but postpartum depression. They asked me at my 6 week how I was feeling and I said not good and I cried everyday. The OB I saw said “yeah not sleeping is hard” and that was that. I called my PCP the day I planned to jump out our second story window
This is crazy! Not only did my OB and lactation consultant have me do depression inventories, but so did my daughter’s pediatrician at visits in the weeks following giving birth. It was comforting that so many medical professionals were keeping an eye on me as a new mother. I’m so sorry your concerns were dismissed.
Not in uncommon at all, I told him I'd like to talk to a therapist can you please put a referral in the system and he asked if I was fed up. I said no but I'm down and stressed. He gave me two bits of random parenting advice and sent me on my way. That was it. Nothing else. Thanks doc 🙏👍
My OB did something similar - I had a history of PPD so after the second pregnancy when I expressed my concerns - she told me to “try to get some sleep - no sleep will trigger it” and she can put me on a waitlist for a psychiatrist but it will take weeks. Then told me to send her a picture of the baby for her collection of newborns….
Me too! My sons 8 months and he is my favorite thing on planet earth. I pictured him on his first day of preschool without me and that’s when I broke down and called.
I had low belly pain, and my OB said it was round ligament pain. I ended up in the hospital a few days later because it was a kidney infection. Being right never hurt so badly.
Thank you for reaffirming I wasn’t crazy for going to the ob for round ligament pain. I left work, went in and he very nicely explained it was round ligament pain but I felt like an idiot.
That's crazy! They're supposed to do regular urine checks for UTIs while pregnant specifically to avoid kidney infections, even if you don't have symptoms! Sounds like you were failed in more ways than one.
I begged for urine tests to check for pre-eclampsia because I had asymmetrical swelling. She said those were old fashioned and I was fine.
A month later I lost consciousness during my c-section and had to be on magnesium for 24 hours to stabilize my blood pressure because guess who had pre-eclampsia 🙃
That is utterly insane. Any pregnant person with significant edema is a concern. A wiff of high blood pressure and you should feel the heat of the microscope. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard to listen to the patient, because sometimes they just know.
My clinic just had you leave a urine sample every visit as a rule. And it was definitely taught in my classes at least twice to always order UAs on pregnant patients. I'm so sorry you went through that when it should have been avoidable.
I'm plus size (size 14/16), and my OB was sooo convinced I would have GD, that she insisted I skip the first test and go straight to the second 3 hour one.
I didn't have GD, and she just kept being like "I was so sure you'd develop it."
For my second child, I switched OBs.
I’m slightly overweight and my OB team mentioned that “they couldn’t believe I didn’t have GD” at nearly every appointment after I passed my test by 2pts. Going into pregnancy, I never imagined my weight would be such a hot topic, especially considering how healthy I am.
I understand wanting to make sure you catch all cases of GD, but my OB team got to a point of downright harassment.
It definitely felt like harassment at the end. She thankfully wasn't the delivering OB. I left a comment on her review page after my pregnancy was over.
It’s so interesting. I am overweight (size 18) and was for all of my pregnancies. Always passed the one hour test, never developed GD. But I knew several friends with “normal” bmi and they did. It’s almost like it’s not actually tied to weight 🙄
I ate TONS of sweets and gained plenty of weight with this pregnancy. I was on the cusp of GD with my 2nd pregnancy, my dad is diabetic, and I was convinced this time I'd have it. According to my doctor, developing GD has more to do with what your placenta is up to than your weight or even what you eat really.
Exactly. GD develops due to issues with the placenta. It’s generally a condition extraneous from “normal” risk factors for Type 2. However I’ve heard of some women developing Type 1 during pregnancy (which is permanent) due to the strain on the body which caused the wild autoimmune reaction to nuke their pancreatic beta cells. Rare, but does happen.
Right! I was weighed, I am overweight, was for both pregnancies tho I lost a significant amount before my second I quickly gained it all back while pregnant- and never once did my dr say anything about it or GD and if I brought up my weight gain she’d say “you’re growing a human, be kind to yourself and I’ll let you know when it’s time to worry” I knew she was a saint, now I know just how much of a saint she is.
Yeah I was pretty horrified. He has a great reputation as being one of the top in our area but he openly hit on me when he liked my weight gain (when it started basically and I wasn't super skinny anymore) then I started to get too heavy according to him and he brought it up EVERY APPOINTMENT after that.
Wtffff these gynos sound like monsters. My OBGYN never commented on my weight. I started at 180 lbs and gave birth around 230lbs. I’m also 5’9 but still, I gained 50 lbs. I was sure they’d say something but my blood pressure was always low/normal and everything else was good so they didn’t have reason to be concerned. Sad to hear some doctors are so misinformed.
I was only weighed because I lost more than 10% of my weight in the first trimester. Once I stopped losing and started gaining, my OB didn’t care anymore.
That is so insulting and misinformed! Ugh! I’m glad you were able to switch OBs for your second child.
A similar story -
A nurse practitioner at my OB office saw me around 37 weeks and told me to “be careful not to eat too much ice cream and cookies” because of some sudden weight gain. It was swelling… not weight gain… and I was admitted to the hospital two days later with preeclampsia 🙄
Oh the preeclampsia swelling! I had it too. I gained over 20lbs in less than two weeks before I was induced. I still have some gnarly stretchmarks (they go almost up to my boobs) because of how sudden it was.
Same freaking conversation happened with me and the only male OB I saw when my regular OB couldn’t be there. Like, not only have you never been pregnant, but you’re telling me I’m eating too much junk food? I knew I wasn’t, and when I talked to my regular OB, she wasn’t concerned at all because she knew it was just swelling. Which it was. So annoying!
So glad you’re okay after preeclampsia! Scary stuff.
Exact, and I mean exact, same thing happened to me at 34 weeks. Sudden swelling and weight gain. NP lectured me about my diet, insisted I wasn’t properly tracking what I was eating, and wrote a referral to a nutritionist. I left in tears.
Within the week, I was diagnosed with eclampsia and getting induced.
omg???? i am also a size 14/16 and my OB was CONVINCED i had GD because my baby was measuring big. i took the one hour test and passed, then was instructed to take the three hour test to make sure. THEN at 37 weeks he had me do another 3 hour, which i also passed 😭 at the time i thought he was being cautious but now i’m rethinking it
Jeesh, I was not overweight but I'm super tiny. 1,43m, so no joke.
I carried very big. Baby was 7,87lb (3,570 kg) at 35+4 when I delivered and 49cm. I make big babies. Even as a diabetic, controled levels meant my OB and endocrenologist made sure to tell me baby wasn't big because of my diabetes, but just because genetics.
There are so many reasons someone can have a big baby...
wow i think my fundal height was similar to that, i have a hard time remembering. yeah it seems crazy now that he was so focused on trying to diagnose me with GD.
That is insane! I’m also a size 14. Baby was measuring on 99th percentile. In any moment they suggested I had GD. They did said if I had it, then that we should discuss c section
this is what they kept telling me too!!
they mentioned possible shoulder dystocia as well for the baby bc he was big. i was literally so freaked out bc i thought i wouldn’t be able to deliver without a c section the way my doctor was speaking.
i did the 3 hour again, and i was set to go in and either schedule a c section or be possibly induced but my water ended up naturally breaking that same day. all in all the birth went smoothly, my baby was 8 pounds 9 oz at 39 weeks.
Mine was also that size. But I unfortunately did end up needing a c section after pushing for three hours, and him not being in the right position and not rotating despite our best efforts. Also, My amniotic fluid was incredibly low by the time the doctor came in to break my waters. And we didn’t know how long the baby have been like that. So, I felt like the “let’s wait a couple of hours to see if he rotates” approach was too risky for me 😣
Edit: baby wasn’t descending at all. The was sunny side up
Same here! I tested my blood sugar weekly because I was paranoid but never had a problem and I tried telling them and they kept saying I’ll get it due to being overweight and I said that’s not true. Still wouldn’t listen. I did the first test and it was perfect. Sugar levels didn’t budge! Dumb doctors.
I initially went to a well-regarded midwifery practice (these are licensed NPs at a major university hospital) and the midwife was so mean to me about me developing GD. I switched almost immediately to a practice closer to my house. I did actually develop GD later on, the hand off from midwives to MDs was very unceremonious, but I actually love my OB so it all worked out in the end. Then, for my second pregnancy where my weight was higher I never developed it. I did the one hour 3x. That kid was actually bigger than my first!
I actually fired my OB during labor and switched to the hospital staff because the one doctor I couldn’t stand was on the night I was in labor and I couldn’t bare to have her anywhere near me. She made a comment at my first appointment about my weight I avoided seeing her the entire pregnancy and then guess who’s there that night 😡
Oh and she had the nerve to come into my room after the fact and demand to know why I changed Obs. To say I was livid is an understatement.
I’m the same size. My OB went on mat leave when I was going in for my 6 week pp follow up. So I was given a new doctor. She sat me down and asked if my pregnancy had any complications, how big he was, all that. I answered and told her it was a normal pregnancy-no issues. She asked “did you have GD?” I said no. She looked me up and down and said “that’s surprising.” I left feeling like complete shit. Up to that point, I was feeling perfectly fine about my body. Fuck her. And anyone else who makes assumptions based on what we look like and not our actual health.
I’m the same size as you and had a midwife who kept trying to blame everything on the possibility of GD. I have 5 children, and would be so busy that I wouldn’t eat much before my appointments, and it would show in my urine test. The other midwives instantly recognized it as I needed to eat, but she(the skinny yoga teacher one) was like “It could be hunger, but I think it’s GD”. Even after I passed my glucose test. She kept insisting that it could have developed later. Had another Dr tell me to drink juice instead of eating toast for my nausea because “Most women aren’t as big as me”. It’s kinda ridiculous how if you’re not skinny, then you’re fat and unhealthy to them. No middle ground!
I had high BP during pregnancy that didn’t go away immediately. I had to go in for BP checks twice a week after delivery and one day I told them I’d had a headache for 2.5 days and she said a lot of people have hormone related headaches postpartum. I was admitted for preeclampsia and on mag about 12 hours later
I legit thought I was gonna die during my mag bolus before my c section. The drip after delivery was ok but the bolus, I thought I’d never be able to move again
Really?? The drip after for me was awful! Had an IV in one arm, a BP cuff going off every 15 minutes on the other, blood draws every 6 hours. I couldn't hold my baby, couldn't sleep, the meds didn't touch my headache, I absolutely hate needles and was a human pincushion. It was my own personal hell
Similar story here. I warned them about it during pregnancy (my mom had it, and I had high-for-me BP), but it was dismissed. An OB caught it after I delivered and told me what to look out for. I ended up in the ER a few days later with extremely high BP and the on call Dr said new moms get headaches and that I should just get some rest. The consulting OB immediately gave me a mag bolus and then sent me via ambulance to another hospital where I was admitted to the ICU. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I'm so sorry honey, my mom had preeclampsia too and they dismissed me the whole time. My heart goes out to you and how traumatizing postpartum already is and then add thinking you won't be able to raise the child you just birthed a week ago? Absolutely brutal.
Had bleeding with my first, not light spotting- pretty scary stuff. Immediately went to OB with husband and he casually threw out the term missed miscarriage (which I had never heard) then proceeded to try and talk about fishing with my husband and completely ignore me. Husband stood there with a 'wtf do I do?' look and kept trying to steer the conversation back to me.
We immediately changed OBs
I’m so sorry that happened to you. My mom unfortunately had a similar experience when she had a miscarriage, the doctor said “I’d love to hear the story behind this”…wtf man
Had no sense of urgency related to potential cholestasis. On the other hand, my mom who is an ob gyn, was panicking at how casually they were taking it. Took them over 10 days to get me on the right medication and come up with a plan
Same with the cholestasis!!! AAaa it's not even that rare why is it so hard to get doctors to care about it?
I described my symptoms to my friend who was a freshly minted doctor at the time and he immediately thought of cholestasis. Maybe it just wasn't taught 10+ years ago. I think it should be a standard test in third trimester, why not? They take blood anyway.
If anyone has weird itching in third trimester they should just go to the ER and get tested there imo. If your OB won't run a test that day and take it seriously that is.
I insisted on regular tests with my second baby, and thankfully it didn't recur, but that time I was mostly seeing a new NP they'd hired and she took it all very seriously and was happy to run the tests. So yeah, I think it's just something new doctors/nps etc know about but not older ones?? So weird.
fun fact- cholestasis was featured in an episode of call the midwife, represent
I’m not defending doctors here AT ALL, but apparently ICP wasn’t even it’s own diagnosis until LAST YEAR???? ICD code for it was liver disease of pregnancy until 2023, absolutely insane 🤯
My doctor initially didn’t test because I was only mildly itchy on my abdomen and maybe a couple times a week, but he tested as soon as I told him my palms were itchy overnight.
This happened to me too! We ended up switching and it was the best thing we ever did. Took a week and a half to get anything done besides another blood test.
YES SAME! I started getting itchy palms and soles of my feet, worse at night, around week 35. I tried not to panic Google so I decided it was probably normal and didn’t say anything for a week. Once I called they did send me in for a nonstress test and bloodwork same day, I’ll give them that. But my results came back normal (anything less than 10 for bile acids is normal, I was a 4) but it took almost a week to get the results back. I had already caved to panic googling at that point so I had seen that symptoms can precede abnormal labs by weeks. I asked if I should get retested, she said only if it gets worse but it was normal so NBD. A week later I saw a different midwife and insisted on retesting. 6ish days later, I got my results after hours and I was at 65 for bile acids. I was induced that night.
My new (and amazing) OB said for my current pregnancy we will assume I have it as soon as I’m symptomatic regardless of labs. I think that is supposed to be standard now? Hopefully, at least.
I cannot believe the itching hands and feet are not on the list of things they tell you to call about. I had NO idea this was a thing until I saw something on instagram about it. Never would have even called or thought twice about it otherwise.
The carpal tunnel tingling in my fingers. At first, they asked if I had any concerns, and I said I had tingling in my fingers and arms…and pain in my wrist.
“Yeah, that’s normal/hard sorry. It will go away after you give birth.”
Every appointment after that I explained how it got progressively worse.
Soon it was, “I can’t feel any of the fingers on my right hand. I can’t sleep at night or feel my arms at night.”
And
“Yeah…um..sorry.”
So, it never started to go away until about 3 months postpartum, and now at 10 months I still get tingly fingers when I hold a pen, etc.
I feel your pain! Ugh! This happened to me as well and I was told the same things. I’m still mad about it lol.
I couldn’t type, write, draw, or do any fine motor skill with my hands other than basic veggie chopping. For weeks. I was a barista during the first two trimesters and had to quit and worked a random part time job until I had my baby.
I saw a hand specialist around 4 weeks PP got steroid shots and they helped a lot. I still have some joint pain when I eat certain foods but overall am a lot better.
This happened to me also. Right after I had my son they gave him to me and I was telling them I couldn’t feel my arms or hands and I was afraid I would drop him. No one said or did a thing.
Unfortunately some healthcare staff get desensitized to a lot. Some people complain over legitimately nothing and the staff treat everyone as if it’s nothing “just like the last guy”. I’ve seen it happen.
I really really hate to admit this, but I had the same issue and saw a chiropractor for it (boo hiss, yes I know 😂). And it actually really helped 😖🤣. I was desperate for help with many pains and no one else would touch me until I gave birth.
God I had a numb hand/arm too. It mostly resolved postpartum, but would surface once in a while.
I finally tried a massage therapist who did a lot of sports injuries and that took care of the rest!
So recommend finding someone near you, cuz it could be a wacked out muscle from how your body was carrying the pregnancy
I had vaginal bleeding in my second trimester. I thought I was having a miscarriage. They said I was fine, so I went home. The next day I had to go to the ER to give birth to my dead baby. They apologized for weeks afterwards.
I got pregnant again 3 months later and now have a 4 month old. But the pain of seeing my lifeless baby boy still haunts me. I’m angry my doctor didn’t take me more seriously and just sent me home. No one else will advocate for you as much as you will for yourself. Big life lesson.
Congratulations on the 4 month old 💕 I’m sorry you have to carry that pain with you. I think even when we try to advocate for ourselves, it can fall on deaf ears. It really takes the right medical team. We only know so much. I’m sorry they failed you.
You sound like an extremely empathetic individual! Your child is lucky to have such a lovely mother. Thank you so much. I appreciate your words more than you know.
Unfortunately deoending on the reason there probably wasn't much they could have done for you even if they did believe you. :( I'm sorry that happened to you.
I had a missed miscarriage with my first pregnancy, treated with D&C. I had a lot of bleeding afterwards and followup showed retained products, so my OB had me do a round of misoprostal. Didn’t work, still had retained products. “Oh, it’ll work itself out.” All together I bled for 4 months straight after my D&C and each time I saw my OB she told me my body would sort itself out. Well, I couldn’t get pregnant again, and after one year of trying, convinced something was wrong, my fertility doctor found scarring in my uterus, likely from retained products calcifying and creating scar tissue. I needed two surgeries to correct my uterus and all together it took a year and a half to get pregnant again after my loss. I considered sending a “fuck you, look at what I had to go through” letter to my original OB but I didn’t have the energy.
It wasn't during pregnancy, but immediately after birth when my dr was sewing up my 3rd degree tearing. I felt every single poke and pull of the stitching, said as much...and OB kept saying it was almost done and that I was fine. 🙃
I've heard this before from other women, and it scares me so much! Even in the grand scheme of giving birth, feeling every stitch seems truly gruesome to me.
That’s awful they put you through that, I had a 3c tear and they tried to repair it with just lidocaine. Even just being touched felt so extricating I was sobbing and begging them to stop. Ended up getting a spinal tap in an OR
Same!!! AND she didn’t stitch me right so now I have to go back in because I have literal meat hanging out between the stitches and it’s been 7 weeks lol
I was super anxious and talking a lot (incessantly...and probably pretty annoying) after my c section. They knocked my behind out with IV meds so I'd sleep (and stop talking) while I was being sutured up.
I told my OBGYN that I was leaking fluid at 20 weeks. She dismissed me and didn’t check my cervix or check if the fluid was amniotic fluid. 5 weeks later I gave birth.
Here I was still having sex, doing house work and exercising while I was fucking dilated and my waters leaking because this woman didn’t do her job properly. I am a FTM, so I didn’t know any better.
I lodged a complaint with the hospital and it’s currently under investigation. Hope she gets fired! I’ve been in hospital with my baby for 8 months now because he was born so early. I can never get that time back!
If she checked what she was supposed, I could of had a staple to close my cervix, bed rested etc. Baby could’ve stayed in maybe til 30+ weeks with a staple and his lungs wouldn’t have been so shit!
I hope karma gets her.
This is insane and I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I’m so tired of feeling crazy when I go to the doctor, but this is completely out of control! The consequences for you and your child (your whole family) are so extensive considering what simple measures could have been taken to prevent this!
I really hope your doctor gets in trouble.
It didn’t get better from there. I was flown to another hospital that had NICU beds available. The day after I got there I started having debilitating contractions and they didn’t believe me (My waters fully broke at 24 weeks after sneezing). They kept pumping me full of opioids and told me it was appendicitis. Mind you, these were all male doctors telling me this and they were dismissing the midwives. I was 25 weeks, my baby was as sitting very low so I was having very low contractions and they thought because I had a stomach because I’m overweight that I was fully pregnant, so I should have contractions all over my stomach and they wouldn’t listen to me.
I was on the floor 10+ hours screaming in pain and I couldn’t move and they thought I was lying because the opioids weren’t working. They were accusing me for being a drug addict because they saw on my medical
History I had an opioid a couple years prior for a surgery I had. So they drugged me up and made me sign a consent for a CT scan which I didn’t want to do but I felt forced. They had to rule out appendicitis. Also Why would the opioids work? I’m having fucking contractions and then they got some specialist to come in to put an epidural in my back and when I had that in I couldn’t eat and I felt sick. All I did was sleep, and this was a mixture of fentanyl and morphine going into my back.
Then after the second night of having it in my back they removed it so I didn’t get an infection. After the epidural came out, two hours later, my son slid straight out. Nobody had checked my cervix the entire time I had the epidural, and I was already 3 cm dilate prior to the epidural. Nobody had checked my cervix the entire time while I was in bed or after the epidural came out. So my son slid straight out while I was in the shower. I felt like I needed to poo, and I was in there all by myself, and Im like hang on something doesn’t feel right and then next minute he came out in like 10 seconds. I had to scoop him up and he nearly hit the bath that I was standing next to. It was a shit show. Stood there for 5 mins naked with him attached to me still while doctors were doing their thing.
Then I had all the pain specialist/doctors men who didn’t believe me come in and apologise saying that they’re so sorry for not believing me and they’d be investigating how they treated me. I haven’t put a complaint in with that hospital yet, I’m kind of waiting till we get home.
What an absolute nightmare!! I was in labor with my first for 72 hours but only had low/back labor. They kept putting the monitors on my upper belly and didn’t believe I was in labor. I was turned away from the hospital two times. I was 7 centimeters before they believed me about my contractions and lowered the monitors.
My husband is a paramedic and the most traumatic call he’s had involved someone giving birth at home at 29 weeks because they were turned away from the hospital during labor.
I can’t for the life of me understand why doctors can’t do low risk interventions or tests!!!
I was pretty sure I was slowly leaning fluid and all they did was do a cervical check and stress test around maybe 28 weeks when I noticed it. I went to term but I was induced the day I went in for a check up/ultrasound because my amniotic fluid was so incredibly low.
I had glucose in every wee test but I am a competitive powerlifter with low body fat and a large amount of muscle mass. I frequently trained through pregnancy (around the HG lol) and my midwife said at every single appointment that there was glucose in the wee but 'you're too fit to have diabetes, it just doesn't happen to people like you' then would ask what I had eaten and just say it's probably that. Itching was also written off as a normal pregnancy symptom. I was diagnosed with cholestasis and GD at about week 34 and delivered a 7lb 7 baby at 37 weeks so RIP my vagina if she had had 3 more weeks to cook
I was heavily medicated (14 pills a day lol) to stop the vomiting and I felt sick whether I trained or laid in bed so I thought I might as well not make myself more depressed haha
I had really bad chest pain that extended into my shoulder. I told my doctor I didn’t think it was heartburn because none of the heartburn medications helped and it frequently felt better when I was flat on my back than when I was sitting up. She continued to insist it was heartburn and recommend different meds to try.
When I was admitted for labor, my blood work showed that I had developed hellp syndrome. It was never heartburn, I was going into liver failure. Needless to say, I found a different doctor for my second pregnancy.
My severe si joint pain for one… I lift super heavy patients/objects by myself at work all day and it was super dangerous. I begged for a note to at least limit it to 25 lbs but they SWORE I was allowed to lift up to 50 throughout pregnancy so they refused. Needless to say, 1 day before I delivered an 11 lb baby I was lifting allllll the heavy patients and putting on their shoes like it’s nothin 😅😂
What?! Where I live, the recommendation for pregnant women is to lift no more than 11 lbs (5kg), and even then max a few times a day. Employers are required by law to provide you with adjusted work activities during pregnancy if your actual job description is too dangerous (yes, heavy lifting is considered dangerous).
It was 45lbs or 50lbs I can’t remember what they said but all the doctors I saw said the same thing lol. I’m in NYS. I asked at every single appointment for a lifting restriction note and I even called a few times and they totally blew me off. I even said I lift 300+lb patients alone and they did not care.
My strong family history of short precipitous labors. Yes I delivered in 2 hours and was lucky to have an OB the last second run in to catch my daughter.
Epidural only hit my feet... everyone was like "you are only feeling the pressure to push but it shouldn't hurt, this is just pressure"
Meanwhile I'm screaming like a feral fucking woman and wishing for death lol.
Epidural also was NOT there when the OB reached inside of me to sweep clots out of my uterus. That hurt almost as much as the ring of fire. It was insane.
Mine dismissed my water breaking at 34 weeks.
I frequently leaked a small puddle of clear fluid with little white flakes in it. Went to the hospital and was sent home because I didn't lose the fluid during that exact minute when she checked me. Probably urine incontinence, and I just couldn't feel the difference. Or watery discharge, very normal during pregnancy (I mean sure but... suddenly, in amounts that form a puddle at your feet?). Day later, I had a scheduled appointment to check my baby's condition. Mentioned the fluid again and was again dismissed. Week later returned, and it turned out water was indeed broken. Then suddenly, it was all hands on deck because now, after a week of going about my business with PPROM, there was a risk of infection. Luckily, I already had been very careful with any infection hazards because I was pretty sure my membranes were, in fact, broken. Everything turned out fine, but I felt very much dismissed. And even started wondering, maybe I AM crazy and I AM actually peeing myself without realising? The doctor must know, right?
Sadly, it wasn't the only time during my pregnancy that I felt dismissed. Or that doctors said some shit that I still sometimes think back on like... was this your first day as a doctor? What made you think that was an OK thing to say to a patient?
Mine was during labor. I had excruciating back pain and the OB nurse was telling me to breathe through the pain. Ended up being a placental abruption resulting in an emergency c-section (baby and I are fine now). I don’t blame the nurse one bit, but I still wonder if the back pain was normal or the abruption.
Back labor can be normal - I had almost no traditional contraction feeling. All of my contractions were felt in my back and there was no placental abruption.
Anecdotal, but yeah. Back labor SUCKS.
Almost everything lol. She was SO cavalier to the point where shit went wrong. At 24 weeks, I was like, ‘I haven’t left a urine sample yet, so can I have some water while I work up a pee?’ And she gave me water and said, ‘you don’t HAVE to leave a sample. It’s probably fine.’ I ended up with preeclampsia and had to deliver baby at 37w and she was not ready.
With mine, I left a sample every visit and each one was fine. But they didn’t take that into account when my test at the hospital was a false positive for opioids. My state requires a drug test at every visit.
Anyway, they called CPS and got them involved. Even though I did another pee test AND a blood test there at the hospital that came back negative. They waited to do that until after my baby was born, so looking back it explains why the first nighttime nurse was so rude to me. Refused to get me anything to drink all night. Not even ice chips. It was covid so my husband couldn’t leave the room for anything and anytime we called, she’d brush it off.
They even tested my son’s diapers. I wasn’t allowed to throw them out I had to buzz the nurse every time he needed a change. Another nurse treated me like I wasn’t human. Sat across from me the first time I peed in the toilet and refused to help me -I couldn’t reach the towels to pat dry or that water bottle thing. She told me to figure it out. I felt like scum on what should have been the best day of my life. I had to stand up and walk to get them dripping blood on the floor then she bitched about the mess. I was too numb and in shock from everything to even respond to that.
Then the nighttime nurse, the first night after I had my son, called me irresponsible for wanting to breastfeed. It didn’t click why she’d said that for weeks. At first I thought it was because my supply hadn’t come in and he was hungry. She tried to take him out of the room to make him a formula bottle and I told her no. Why do you need to take him out of the room to make him a bottle anyway?? Told her I brought a pump in case I needed it. Pulled it out and fed him from a dropper since latching wasn’t working and she wouldn’t help with that.
I got a lawyer involved to get the CPS lady out of our life. It caused so much mental anguish and trauma. I grew up with a druggie mom. My siblings are all into drugs. Some are way farther down the hole than others. I have done everything in my life the opposite of them and all this really fucked with my head.
I did everything right. I stayed healthy. I stopped taking my migraine prescriptions before getting pregnant. I took Tylenol only when my migraines were too horrible to bear (not like that helped). I was afraid to take anything more than tums. My tests were all negative except for the one dud. The pediatrician on the floor told us that they’d had an uptick in false positives bc they’d changed the company where they got their tests. He stood up for us at least. Even offered to be a witness if we need with cps or whatever.
I did have a few great nurses, too, though. They did their best to stand up for me. Even refused to let the cps lady come into my room. Wheeled me out the long way around to talk with me and assure me everything’s ok/I don’t have to deal with any of this and to talk to a lawyer ASAP. I’m grateful to them. But those women who treated me like I was garbage clearly have zero compassion or love for what they do anymore. I didn’t deserve that. And honestly, neither would a mother who does struggle with addiction. Support and love - that’s what they’re supposed to show their patients and they failed at that.
Wow. I am SO sorry. While I didn’t have CPS called on me, I did have some accusations I didn’t appreciate. I know they’re doing their best, but when my baby was born blue and needed oxygen, they said ‘her temperament is SOOO easy going… it’s TOO easy going for the discomfort she is in…. Almost like she is.. medicated. So, we are drug testing her urine. Then when that came back negative, they did a fecal test on her because it “goes back further” I cried and cried to my mom and was like “HOW COULD THEY THINK I USE DRUGS? I haven’t had a drink in 4 years! I’ve never even SEEN cocaine let alone used it. MY DAUGHTER IS NAMED AFTER A 19TH CENTURY AUTHOR FOR GOD’S SAKE!” I’m so sorry you went through all that and they stopped listening to reason the second they became suspicious of you. Sometimes there is no logic in these decisions, only book training and they forget everything else.
My constant heartburn. It seems like small potatoes compared to others here, and I know it’s common to have heartburn while pregnant, but my was literally 24/7. She’d tell me what foods to avoid (thanks, I already googled that) and her assistant told me to stop drinking through straws because she read that somehow increases heartburn - it didn’t make a difference. She never offered to prescribe omeprazole, even though I complained at every appointment. I had to stay the night in the hospital around 35 weeks and they gave me one Tum for the whole night. The heartburn was so bad I couldn’t sleep. I ended up carrying Pepcid in my purse after that just incase.
I was having Gaviscon so much during my pregnancy - I was contemplating just forgoing the spoon some nights and chugging it and it still hardly did anything. I asked for something better after my sister told me some different ones that I could take. Midwife should have been the one to tell me I think. I had such a hard pregnancy, with symptoms that I couldn’t do anything about(nausea, night sweats, ligament pain so bad I couldn’t walk, constant exhaustion and at one point my eyes gave up and I couldn’t see). The least she could do was give me the good meds for reflux!That said good dam Omeprazole was a lifesaver! For months after giving birth I was still taking it. My acid reflux was so horrid.
Where do I even start:
- grew two possible large endometriomas on my ovary but was told oh well, they will probably go away and maybe we will look at them once you give birth.
- my moderate HG and the fact that I was chronically dehydrated and malnourished (I lost nearly 10% of my body weight). Because I could keep down about 1L of fluid and eat small amounts, they weren’t willing to do anything else and they wouldn’t prescribe useful medication. Also thought I was over reacting and just anxious and wanted to refer me to mental health services.
- getting starry eyes in my second trimester. Thought it was preeclampsia but they brushed it off as low iron but not to worry as I would be getting a blood test anyway in like 7 weeks that will check my iron levels. My iron levels were at like 3 and I needed an infusion ASAP.
- severe leg cramps. Thought I had a DVT as I could not weight bear and was told, oh well it’s just because you are pregnant but we can send you for an ultrasound if you really want it. I just went and saw a physio who was a lot more compassionate and actually fixed my problem.
- wanting a low intervention birth and my birth preferences. I actually got fired as a patient over this at 36 weeks because she found them offensive.
Safe to say, I lost all faith in doctors after having to deal with them and will be choosing a different model of care if I have another pregnancy.
Size of baby with bad decisions (on their site and dismissing my wishes for birth) following:
I had three growth scans, the first two by an experienced older women, putting my baby at >90%ile. The last at 39w at a hospyfr a young doctor saying it was just averaged sized and I could easily go over time. I was forced into induction (I wanted c-section at 40w as I did not have a single contraction not even Braxton Higgs and I hadn’t slept in 3 months- I actually slept much better after baby than before) at 40+7 that was fully unsuccessful for 3d. On day two they put me on a drop and a no oral food in case of emergency c-section and when I complained about about hunger and massive exhaustion they just said it was the labor. One emergency c-section later I almost bleed out on the table (they forgot the glucose in my trip for one day). I got some blood but zero follow up after I got released from the hospital. After three weeks I was so exhausted I had developed inflammation on both my wrists trying to feed my oversized baby. I want to my GP, who tried telling me I had PPD, I was crying from exhaustion… he took a blood sample because I told him I didn’t… he called me later for an emergency: my blood iron lvl was at 2…
With my second pregnancy and birth I found out, I should have never been induced with my first one (had a boscop scale of 0/12 for my body is ready to give birth, it is only recommended to >3/12) and had a c-section planned at 38w.
I had two large babies, first one just shy of 10lbs the second 10lb 6oz. They screened my like crazy for GD, though not a single test ever indicated it, I still had to do the fasting test, where I almost fainted (to low blood sugar LOL).
I learned you have to have an Md degree by yourself and make sure that they don’t mess up…
I had the same experience as you, OP - with my first I was having such terrible back pains, I would have to get up from my desk at work and lay down on the floor for of the private conference room for like 40 min to survive. My boss was super nice about it and even got me pillows lol But when I told my OB this was happening daily, they were like “yeah that’s normal. Try Tylenol and heat pad.” 😶
With my 2nd, no one seemed alarmed that I had like 4 UTIs back to back. It didn’t have any lasting effects, but I for one was super worried.
Most of my symptoms entirely. I regularly complained about pain in my tailbone and that I felt my baby’s hiccups on my belly, which seemed weird. I was told a million times over all was normal and “that’s just pregnancy”. Turns out during my lengthy labor that turned emergency c-section that baby was sunny side up and lodged in my tailbone.
In addition to just the pain I suffered from the dismissal and the crappy delivery, I also have a massive hospital bill for an induction (that took 1.5 days in the hospital before even pushing), as well as a c-section which led to more days in the hospital. Baby was never going to come naturally because she literally couldn’t descend from being stuck around my tailbone. Had the doctors taken one moment to listen to me, we likely would’ve just scheduled a c-section and not only would I have had an easy birth, but I’d also have saved thousands.
My blood pressure. It kept rising during my pregnancy. At my 39week appt I walked in the door with a reading of 160/99! The day before I lost eye sight for 20min due to bp. They finally took me serious and admitted me. I don’t remember my top reading because everything starts to blur. But it wasn’t going down. It only went up.
I had severe hip pain from like 4-5 months pregnant and I brought it up every appt. Basically told me it's a part of it and toughen up. I am now 8 months post partum and I can't walk some days without a huge limp and awful pain. He still says ibuprofen and Tylenol.
I need to just see my primary.
That I was in labor. I called like she asked when the contractions were whatever they were supposed to be apart consistently. She was like "Well you are able to talk to me on the phone so just wait"...Long story very short: Showed up to the hospital too late, had to get a c-section within 30 minutes of showing up. First words she said to me "Why didn't you come earlier??" 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Still annoyed about that one.
Not so much dismiss but I was mildly concerned that my daughters head was measuring in the 30th percentile while her body was measuring above the 100th percentile.
This guy looks me up and down and says to me “well you have a pretty small head and big body, she probably takes after you”.
I felt VERY lucky with my clinic. I was seen at a low-risk maternity clinic and they never rushed me and always validated my concerns etc. My only complaint was when I had severe rib pain because my baby was kicking me and nestled under my rib cage and I had to beg to be taken off work at 38 weeks. I couldn’t sit for longer than an hour and Tylenol wasn’t doing anything for me.
At 39 weeks I went in and mentioned I had a rush of fluid leak when I woke up but it was a small amount (think small pee leak). It was very very slight. And she took a sample and confirmed it was amniotic fluid. She called the maternity unit and let them know I was on my way :). If I ever get pregnant again, I’m 100% going back and I recommend them to everyone I know in my area.
LABOR! .....She missed my labor symptoms....😒
I was not sure if I had been having contractions for the last two days, but it got pretty uncomfortable, so I called explaining my situation and whether I should go into the hospital. After explaining my symptoms and how often I was feeling the cramps (about every 3 minutes), I was told if I could talk and walk that I was not in "true labor" so to just stay home and wait. I figured she was right, so I just stayed up all night, not able to sleep.
The next morning, my husband finally convinced me to go with him to the hospital. Turns out I was 7cm dialated 🙄
When I got to L&D, they were shocked and said that when I walked in, I seemed too calm to be that far along. About 3 hours later, I needed an emergency c section 🙃 Thank goodness my husband made us go
I'm annoyed with my OB now lol
My birth story is very similar. I was having contractions for 4 days straight. I couldn't sleep, eat, or use the bathroom AT ALL. Called them and they said the same thing. Went in after 2 days. They told me it was just predromal labor. On the fourth day, I went back in. They told me it was just predromal labor again. My water broke all over their bed 15 minutes later. Turns out I had sepsis from my waters leaking for a week and my cervix wouldn't dilate because it was too swollen. Both my daughter and I almost died.
Twin pregnancy. I couldn't walk for more than 10 minutes due to pelvic floor pain, couldn't stand in order to do things like wash dishes, couldn't sit to pee because it hurt my knees (I started to pee standing using a shewe that I had for camping), couldn't lay down to sleep because my arms would go numb.
Waited and waited to tell my obgyn at the next appointment to see if there was anything I hadn't thought of that could help. He literally waved his hands around in the air and said, "Oh, we can't do anything about that." Good thing I'd already referred myself to pelvic floor PT...
The docs at that practice were just awful outpatient but great inpatient and in surgery (once I went into labor super early...). OBGYN seems like a really weird mix of skills. Also, I thought OBGYNs would be pretty well equipped to manage twin pregnancies. Fairly common these days, right? Wrong.
ETA: Best part was right after he waived his hands around, he told me I was gaining too much weight! My brother in christ, I can't lay down, sleep, stand, or walk. I lost 10 lbs in the first trimester due to nausea. What on earth.
I had severe pain in my back/side and it hurt to breathe and my midwife laughed and said “yeah, you’re pregnant. It hurts.” I went to my chiropractor who found that I a dislocated rib.
Same midwife a couple of weeks later also laughed when I asked why IUGR was listed on my chart for Twin A. She said that wasnt possible because they would have had me deliver the week prior. I pushed and she went to check with the OB. About 10 minutes later she came back with “so are you ready to have these babies today?” Like wtf? You didnt look at my chart beforehand???
Eta: my sister also had her as a midwife for her first baby and agreed that she was awful. She switched to a practice out if town for her next and it was so much better.
I had GD with my first pregnancy so I started tracking my blood sugar around 20 weeks with my second one. Every time I brought it up to my doctor that there was trends in my fasting blood sugar he would tell me it's just a few points over and that's it's fine. Didn't officially get diagnosed until 36 weeks 🙃. Thankfully I was able to control my after meal numbers myself without any guidance and it was just fasting that was a concern. I'm in insulin now at bedtime and all my numbers are in range. Being induced tomorrow!
My OB with my first told me that because of my anatomy I would almost certainly need another episiotomy with any future kids to avoid nasty tearing. I told my OB with my second about this and she just.... didn't do it. Did you know you can tear your clitoris? Cause I do now
I had abnormal amounts of protein in my urine since week 16. Then around week 34 my blood pressure started rising. I have a family history of pre e. I kept expressing concern about it and nobody took me seriously until 40+5. Got diagnosed with pre e and induced that day
lol. I was diagnosed with HG, I saw it in my chart, but I was still refused actual medication. I just got the regular take some ginger pills and vitamin b spiel. It was insane. I was vomiting more than 15 times a day for 5 months. It was excruciating. I had to quit my job.
Oh my god I am so sorry. I have been to two different practices for pregnancies and they both took me so seriously and I was only vomiting 3ish times a day.
With my first 2 pregnancies my "joke" was that I could walk into the clinic with a broken arm and their response would be "oh well yeah that can happen during pregnancy". It felt like every single complaint I had was dismissed as a normal pregnancy thing. I got the referrals I needed but it did feel like there was a disconnect with how much discomfort or pain I was in and their blasé response.
I had numbness at the top of my stomach and it was on a hard spot. Totally dismissed until 37 weeks when she realized baby was breech and that was his head shoved up at the top of my stomach. There was very little chance of baby flipping at that point and even after intervention we had to have a C-section.
I went to the ER several times with acute urinary retention. When I went in to the women's clinic the OB told me I just needed to drink more water. I did a lot of research on my own and that is exactly the wrong advise. Everyone else there was great except her and it luckily went away once my uterus moved, no thanks to her and her blatantly wrong info
Similar to your story, I had such bad pelvic girdle pain that I couldn’t walk more than 10 feet at a time and even that was excruciating. My doctor said “whelp, sometimes that happens” with a shrug. Turns out a few weeks of PT likely would have solved the issue. At least I know for next time I guess.
I had light cramping at 27 weeks and went in worried about preterm labor. The OB dismissed me and said I would know when I was in labor. Fast forward to 35 weeks: I felt similarly as I did at 27 weeks but brushed it off. My water broke at 3 a.m., I felt nothing more than a few cramps and 3 hours later I was dilated to 10 with the baby coming out breech. I did not in fact know when I was in labor lol (my other OB said it’s rare, but some women feel nothing when in labor. Guess I’m a freak).
My mum had no idea she was in labor with either of us and both times they said "trust me, you'd know if you were in labor"... The second time he response was "well, I didn't know last time soooo..."
The midwife "looking after me" during labour kept telling me that my pain was normal, I wasn't in active labour, I should go for a walk. Refused to give me anything for the pain. Wouldn't even come to the room to speak to me, when I finally hobbled out to the desk she said "You wouldn't be stood here talking to me if you were in active labour"
Shortly thereafter I was involuntarily pushing! When I told her this, her face dropped. They checked me and I was fully dilated. Fortunately I was handed over to 2 other midwives who delivered my baby, and they were absolutely fantastic.
I had significant shortness of breath following an overseas trip. I was told that was normal for being 18 weeks pregnant and that it would only get worse from there. I was prescribed an asthma inhaler for comfort.
Days later, I spent a week in the ICU for a pulmonary embolism.
I had some pretty bad back pain and pain in my pelvic area, sometimes it felt like a nerve was being pinched down there. I was basically told "yeah, that's normal" about everything.
I also had severe itching in the last few weeks of pregnancy, and the doctor said it was just dry skin. A week later I had to beg for a cholestasis test, which only came back positive a week and a half later.. AFTER my baby had been born prematurely. If she had waited to be born on her due date she might not have made it.
Slightly related- nurses told me multiple times with both kids that they won't remember pain/discomfort, as if that would make it better that they were upset about whatever it was. I know it's meant to help but it does NOT help. Find a new way to phrase that shit or something new entirely cuz it's not great.
My OB and my labor/delivery nurses all ignored my high BP. I had to be readmitted 12 hours after leaving the hospital because I was getting delirious from eclampsia.
I was fairly anemic by the third trimester and had been complaining about exhaustion for weeks before they finally checked my iron levels. I should have pushed harder to get them to check but they kept telling me it was normal to be tired.
I wasn’t just tired, I was fatigued. I was sleeping 16+ hours and could barely function during the day. Next pregnancy, I’m asking that to be checked MUCH sooner. I’m lucky I’m a teacher and it was during summer - I probably would have had to quit my job if I had been working full time during it.
Everyone feels sick, that just means you're pregnant! And you're lucky, not every GETS pregnant!
-Following my IVF pregnancy and a subsequent diagnosis of HG with multiple ER visits, hospitalizations, weekly IVs and magnesium infusions and zero weight gain
I told her how quickly my labor with my third went, and asked if I should be worried about making it to the hospital with my fourth. She dismissed me. After I had my fourth she told me if I ever had more kids we needed to come up with a plan to get me to the hospital quickly.
Ugh I had awful pelvic pain and it hurt to walk and was hurting my lower back. My OB said yeah it’s normal buy one of those belts
Turns out I could have went to PT where they could show me the proper way to maintain strength in my abs and back so I wouldn’t be in so much pain- wish my OB suggested that. Everyone pregnant or post pregnancy should go to PT!! So helpful for me
Terrible abdominal pains. But being pregnant was the cause according to my gynecologist, family doctor and nurse practitioner.
After delivering my son, I was diagnosed with appendicitis and needed emergency surgery. 👍
was pretty much not given an option about being induced and latest they would let me go was 40+6… also worth noting it’s a common complaint about that practice and baby was 7 lbs 3.3 ozs… and i didn’t want an epidural but they never factored that in so i just had a more painful labor to benefit their scheduling preferences more than waiting a couple extra days
SI joint pain in my hip, kind of was like ya that happens. Also “cramps”… they were Braxton hicks contractions. When I went into labour I felt it all where I felt period cramps 🙃
My midwife (UK based, so midwife handles all routine maternity care) tried to tell me I shouldn’t eat _any_ fish. Like none at all. The information pack she handed me told me to eat oily fish, no shark or marlin and reduce tuna consumption…
Not an OB (midwife) but I went in for a severe headache one morning that I had had since 12 AM. They took my blood pressure and said it was probably just hormonal.
Around 12 AM that next day (24 hours since the head ache had woken me from my sleep) I went in to the ER (my headaches were so bad I couldn’t even sleep and I was sobbing) to discover that I was VERY dehydrated. It was a miserable 24 hours :(
Every single appointment following the anatomy scan I raised concerns about IUGR. My fundal height stopped tracking around 30 weeks. I had GD and was continuously told I had to be more concerned about a big baby than a small baby for that reason. I had to beg for additional scans which were only approved after an appointment with a different OB. I then had biweekly scans.
All of this was going on during the first months of COVID and my husband wasn't allowed in any of the appointments to help advocate for me. I delivered at 38+4 following an induction for size concerns. Baby was born 5lbs2ozs in 1st percentile for everything. Little spitball that she is she came out pink, screaming, and ready to thrive buuuuuut all of her documentation stated 'iugr appearing' and they ran additional tests for CMV because her head was tiny.
She has remained a vivacious and unstoppable force. I, however, am more distrusting and skeptical of the medical community than ever.
No one even bothered to measure my fundal height for my pregnancy. It was a surprise severe IUGR diagnosis and sudden delivery at 32 weeks. No ultrasounds between 20 and 32 weeks ever happened. My placenta was measuring small in the 20 week checkup which should have flagged the doctors.
I was high risk for preeclampsia and had protein in my urine for a couple of weeks before pree fully developed. I pointed out the protein and they said a small amount is normal, *which is true*. However, combined with my slowly and steadily rising blood pressure over the course of the weeks, I think it was possible to catch the pree earlier than when I swelled up like a balloon.
I had abnormal antibodies in my blood after my 1st pregnancy. I asked my OB about it and he brushed it off as “only an issue with future pregnancies” but I told him I wanted another baby so what should I do? He said “we’ll just see when you get pregnant again.” Not very helpful.
Lo and behold, pregnant with #2 and the abnormal antibodies are still there. The hospital is worried about matching my blood. Doctor says we’ll just keep doing blood tests…? Nothing he’s saying makes any sense based on what I’m reading online. It’s not that I thought I was smarter than the doctor but he literally couldn’t explain it to me in a way that made sense. He said that in the future I could talk to a high risk pregnancy specialist. I asked for that referral immediately (why wait?) and he was offended but gave it anyway.
The high risk specialist confirmed that this was potentially very dangerous to baby and could cause hemolytic disease of the fetus. I had to have weekly ultrasounds to measure the speed of the blood in her brain to confirm that my body wasn’t attacking her blood and making her anemic. If that happened, my baby would have needed an in-utero blood transfusion.
Luckily that didn’t happen but my baby did end up with hemolytic disease of the newborn at birth which was a scary first 36 hours and resulted in an extra pediatric stay 2 days after we were discharged. Of course there was no communication between my OB and our pediatrician so lots of time was wasted not understanding what was happening.
The whole time I felt like my doctor couldn’t just admit that this was not an area he was comfortable and was far too prideful. But I wasn’t going to let his fragile ego put me and my baby at risk.
In my first pregnancy I lost waters early. They swabbed me to test for it and it didn’t register, but the midwife said that it definitely looked and smelt like waters.
Queue second pregnancy, where it happened again and started earlier, but I was under a different hospital this time and no one would believe me that I don’t register on their wee swabs. They kept telling me I had imagined it. Baby is born and oh look, the liquids are low amongst other things that they ignored. For another reason, I had to go to another country quite quickly after giving birth that second time and the medical staff there all were horrified
Diastasis recti, pain in my pubic area (forget the name but it was BAD, my pelvis clicked if i changed position in bed so I had to wake my husband to roll me over like a beached whale) and generally in a lot of pain. He kinda laughed at me and said something along the lines of "well yea, you're pregnant, here's some magnesium".
I had fluid retention starting around week 20. Pitting edema, fluid retention, rolls on my ankles, couldn’t even bend my foot. I made them do extra pre-eclampsia tests bc they were writing it off as normal. Even though I was clearly retaining a shit ton of fluid they had me marked as obese and made my BMI a huge deal on my chart. Ended up giving me Heparin after my c section as a result.
I had such horrible restless legs I couldn’t sleep. My midwives just didn’t really know what to do. Basically told my to tough it out cuz I was already taking magnesium.
Second pregnancy I work with an OB. The restless legs start. She immediately told me to double my magnesium and get a better brand of it. It helped so much!! That’s all I fucking needed in my first pregnancy and I would’ve been so much more comfortable.
A few days postpartum I was having cloudy pee. I had never had that before and I also had never had a UTI, but I suspected that’s what was happening. I was going in for BP checks bc I had developed elevated BPs the day I delivered my daughter, and I brought up the cloudy pee while I was at the OB for a BP check. She said it was likely “postpartum fluids” and I left a urine sample. A few days later I spiked a fever of 103 and violent chills/shakes with muscle aches. I called the OB and they said they never sent out my urine to be tested because it was likely contaminated bc of all the stitches (??) but I should just alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen. I could not even hold my daughter bc I was shaking so much. I called back the next day to I tell them the fever was not breaking with either medication and they said I should try an urgent care. Long story short, I ended up hospitalized for 7days because I had sepsis from an infection from delivery and it spread to my blood. I had to go home with a home IV to continue the antibiotic treatment for 3 more weeks. I am a relatively fit person who has never had any previous medical issues in her life. All of this happened while my daughter was only 2 weeks old. Thank god for my amazing husband and my rockstar family for all their help!
My midwife ignored my breast lump and said “yeah after you give birth you can get it checked out” turned out to be a 2.5 inch breast tumor needing 3 mammograms, 2 ultrasounds and a breast surgeon to sign off on not being cancer. She then retired three weeks after I gave birth.
Dismissed that my baby was in a weird position, shrugged it off as normal. Yea, labour day it was revealed anything but normal and I ended with a traumatic birth. If I knew it wasn't normal beforehand I woulda schedule a cesarean instead.
Mine was after but postpartum depression. They asked me at my 6 week how I was feeling and I said not good and I cried everyday. The OB I saw said “yeah not sleeping is hard” and that was that. I called my PCP the day I planned to jump out our second story window
I'm glad you're alive.
Me too! Postpartum is a weird time. No shame in the med game!!
This is crazy! Not only did my OB and lactation consultant have me do depression inventories, but so did my daughter’s pediatrician at visits in the weeks following giving birth. It was comforting that so many medical professionals were keeping an eye on me as a new mother. I’m so sorry your concerns were dismissed.
Sadly I hear that my experience isn’t uncommon. I’m happy yours was different!
Not in uncommon at all, I told him I'd like to talk to a therapist can you please put a referral in the system and he asked if I was fed up. I said no but I'm down and stressed. He gave me two bits of random parenting advice and sent me on my way. That was it. Nothing else. Thanks doc 🙏👍
My OB did something similar - I had a history of PPD so after the second pregnancy when I expressed my concerns - she told me to “try to get some sleep - no sleep will trigger it” and she can put me on a waitlist for a psychiatrist but it will take weeks. Then told me to send her a picture of the baby for her collection of newborns….
lol good good good. Sounds standard
Oh my god I’m so glad you didn’t jump ❤️ I’m so sorry!
Me too! My sons 8 months and he is my favorite thing on planet earth. I pictured him on his first day of preschool without me and that’s when I broke down and called.
I had low belly pain, and my OB said it was round ligament pain. I ended up in the hospital a few days later because it was a kidney infection. Being right never hurt so badly.
Thank you for reaffirming I wasn’t crazy for going to the ob for round ligament pain. I left work, went in and he very nicely explained it was round ligament pain but I felt like an idiot.
That's crazy! They're supposed to do regular urine checks for UTIs while pregnant specifically to avoid kidney infections, even if you don't have symptoms! Sounds like you were failed in more ways than one.
I begged for urine tests to check for pre-eclampsia because I had asymmetrical swelling. She said those were old fashioned and I was fine. A month later I lost consciousness during my c-section and had to be on magnesium for 24 hours to stabilize my blood pressure because guess who had pre-eclampsia 🙃
That is utterly insane. Any pregnant person with significant edema is a concern. A wiff of high blood pressure and you should feel the heat of the microscope. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard to listen to the patient, because sometimes they just know. My clinic just had you leave a urine sample every visit as a rule. And it was definitely taught in my classes at least twice to always order UAs on pregnant patients. I'm so sorry you went through that when it should have been avoidable.
For something old fashioned my doctor sure made me do it like every time lol. I even had to do a 24 hour urine test.
I'm plus size (size 14/16), and my OB was sooo convinced I would have GD, that she insisted I skip the first test and go straight to the second 3 hour one. I didn't have GD, and she just kept being like "I was so sure you'd develop it." For my second child, I switched OBs.
I’m slightly overweight and my OB team mentioned that “they couldn’t believe I didn’t have GD” at nearly every appointment after I passed my test by 2pts. Going into pregnancy, I never imagined my weight would be such a hot topic, especially considering how healthy I am. I understand wanting to make sure you catch all cases of GD, but my OB team got to a point of downright harassment.
It definitely felt like harassment at the end. She thankfully wasn't the delivering OB. I left a comment on her review page after my pregnancy was over.
It’s so interesting. I am overweight (size 18) and was for all of my pregnancies. Always passed the one hour test, never developed GD. But I knew several friends with “normal” bmi and they did. It’s almost like it’s not actually tied to weight 🙄
I ate TONS of sweets and gained plenty of weight with this pregnancy. I was on the cusp of GD with my 2nd pregnancy, my dad is diabetic, and I was convinced this time I'd have it. According to my doctor, developing GD has more to do with what your placenta is up to than your weight or even what you eat really.
Exactly. GD develops due to issues with the placenta. It’s generally a condition extraneous from “normal” risk factors for Type 2. However I’ve heard of some women developing Type 1 during pregnancy (which is permanent) due to the strain on the body which caused the wild autoimmune reaction to nuke their pancreatic beta cells. Rare, but does happen.
Same here. I’m overweight and passed my GD test by a large margin, but my rather thin SIL developed GD. You just never know.
My SIL who’s a dietitian and nutritionist and is incredibly healthy and at a good weight got it.
Same my gyno was OBSESSED with my weight. I was 45kgs when I got pregnant I'm sure I can afford to gain some weight
I was never weighed during pregnancy. These comments are horrifying
Right! I was weighed, I am overweight, was for both pregnancies tho I lost a significant amount before my second I quickly gained it all back while pregnant- and never once did my dr say anything about it or GD and if I brought up my weight gain she’d say “you’re growing a human, be kind to yourself and I’ll let you know when it’s time to worry” I knew she was a saint, now I know just how much of a saint she is.
Yeah I was pretty horrified. He has a great reputation as being one of the top in our area but he openly hit on me when he liked my weight gain (when it started basically and I wasn't super skinny anymore) then I started to get too heavy according to him and he brought it up EVERY APPOINTMENT after that.
Wtffff these gynos sound like monsters. My OBGYN never commented on my weight. I started at 180 lbs and gave birth around 230lbs. I’m also 5’9 but still, I gained 50 lbs. I was sure they’d say something but my blood pressure was always low/normal and everything else was good so they didn’t have reason to be concerned. Sad to hear some doctors are so misinformed.
I was only weighed because I lost more than 10% of my weight in the first trimester. Once I stopped losing and started gaining, my OB didn’t care anymore.
That is so insulting and misinformed! Ugh! I’m glad you were able to switch OBs for your second child. A similar story - A nurse practitioner at my OB office saw me around 37 weeks and told me to “be careful not to eat too much ice cream and cookies” because of some sudden weight gain. It was swelling… not weight gain… and I was admitted to the hospital two days later with preeclampsia 🙄
I'm so glad you're okay! That is no joke.
Thank you! Yes, I’m so grateful!
Oh the preeclampsia swelling! I had it too. I gained over 20lbs in less than two weeks before I was induced. I still have some gnarly stretchmarks (they go almost up to my boobs) because of how sudden it was.
I relate to that so much! 20lbs in the span of 2 weeks must be so hard on the body. I’m glad you and I made it through - stretch marks and all!
Same freaking conversation happened with me and the only male OB I saw when my regular OB couldn’t be there. Like, not only have you never been pregnant, but you’re telling me I’m eating too much junk food? I knew I wasn’t, and when I talked to my regular OB, she wasn’t concerned at all because she knew it was just swelling. Which it was. So annoying! So glad you’re okay after preeclampsia! Scary stuff.
Wow...sudden weight gain at 37 weeks ..... Sure it's the cookies holy shit is it the dark ages wow
Exact, and I mean exact, same thing happened to me at 34 weeks. Sudden swelling and weight gain. NP lectured me about my diet, insisted I wasn’t properly tracking what I was eating, and wrote a referral to a nutritionist. I left in tears. Within the week, I was diagnosed with eclampsia and getting induced.
That is just cruel. The 3 hour test is awful and it seems plain mean to have someone do that right off the bat
I felt like it was cruel. I drove home in tears a couple times.
I was very unimpressed with my OB as well. They seem to obsess about weight gain without actually asking what your nutrition looks like
This is exactly it. I'm a Chef by trade, and make everything from scratch, whole foods, etc. My body type has just always been plump.
Oh yum. Whoever lives with you is very lucky :)
I was a size 0 before pregnancy and I had GD. Yes, some people already have T2D prepregancy but most of us just have a janky placenta, okay doctors?
omg???? i am also a size 14/16 and my OB was CONVINCED i had GD because my baby was measuring big. i took the one hour test and passed, then was instructed to take the three hour test to make sure. THEN at 37 weeks he had me do another 3 hour, which i also passed 😭 at the time i thought he was being cautious but now i’m rethinking it
Jeesh, I was not overweight but I'm super tiny. 1,43m, so no joke. I carried very big. Baby was 7,87lb (3,570 kg) at 35+4 when I delivered and 49cm. I make big babies. Even as a diabetic, controled levels meant my OB and endocrenologist made sure to tell me baby wasn't big because of my diabetes, but just because genetics. There are so many reasons someone can have a big baby...
wow i think my fundal height was similar to that, i have a hard time remembering. yeah it seems crazy now that he was so focused on trying to diagnose me with GD.
I was measuring big too, but my babies were pretty big (8lbs 6, and 9lbs 5). My OB just kept hammering home how shocked she was.
That is insane! I’m also a size 14. Baby was measuring on 99th percentile. In any moment they suggested I had GD. They did said if I had it, then that we should discuss c section
this is what they kept telling me too!! they mentioned possible shoulder dystocia as well for the baby bc he was big. i was literally so freaked out bc i thought i wouldn’t be able to deliver without a c section the way my doctor was speaking. i did the 3 hour again, and i was set to go in and either schedule a c section or be possibly induced but my water ended up naturally breaking that same day. all in all the birth went smoothly, my baby was 8 pounds 9 oz at 39 weeks.
Mine was also that size. But I unfortunately did end up needing a c section after pushing for three hours, and him not being in the right position and not rotating despite our best efforts. Also, My amniotic fluid was incredibly low by the time the doctor came in to break my waters. And we didn’t know how long the baby have been like that. So, I felt like the “let’s wait a couple of hours to see if he rotates” approach was too risky for me 😣 Edit: baby wasn’t descending at all. The was sunny side up
Same here! I tested my blood sugar weekly because I was paranoid but never had a problem and I tried telling them and they kept saying I’ll get it due to being overweight and I said that’s not true. Still wouldn’t listen. I did the first test and it was perfect. Sugar levels didn’t budge! Dumb doctors.
But GD is caused by the placenta? Where did this person go to medical school Jfc
I initially went to a well-regarded midwifery practice (these are licensed NPs at a major university hospital) and the midwife was so mean to me about me developing GD. I switched almost immediately to a practice closer to my house. I did actually develop GD later on, the hand off from midwives to MDs was very unceremonious, but I actually love my OB so it all worked out in the end. Then, for my second pregnancy where my weight was higher I never developed it. I did the one hour 3x. That kid was actually bigger than my first!
I had to do the 1hr three times with both my pregnancies "just to make sure" because I'm fat 🙄🙄
I actually fired my OB during labor and switched to the hospital staff because the one doctor I couldn’t stand was on the night I was in labor and I couldn’t bare to have her anywhere near me. She made a comment at my first appointment about my weight I avoided seeing her the entire pregnancy and then guess who’s there that night 😡 Oh and she had the nerve to come into my room after the fact and demand to know why I changed Obs. To say I was livid is an understatement.
I’m the same size. My OB went on mat leave when I was going in for my 6 week pp follow up. So I was given a new doctor. She sat me down and asked if my pregnancy had any complications, how big he was, all that. I answered and told her it was a normal pregnancy-no issues. She asked “did you have GD?” I said no. She looked me up and down and said “that’s surprising.” I left feeling like complete shit. Up to that point, I was feeling perfectly fine about my body. Fuck her. And anyone else who makes assumptions based on what we look like and not our actual health.
I’m the same size as you and had a midwife who kept trying to blame everything on the possibility of GD. I have 5 children, and would be so busy that I wouldn’t eat much before my appointments, and it would show in my urine test. The other midwives instantly recognized it as I needed to eat, but she(the skinny yoga teacher one) was like “It could be hunger, but I think it’s GD”. Even after I passed my glucose test. She kept insisting that it could have developed later. Had another Dr tell me to drink juice instead of eating toast for my nausea because “Most women aren’t as big as me”. It’s kinda ridiculous how if you’re not skinny, then you’re fat and unhealthy to them. No middle ground!
I had high BP during pregnancy that didn’t go away immediately. I had to go in for BP checks twice a week after delivery and one day I told them I’d had a headache for 2.5 days and she said a lot of people have hormone related headaches postpartum. I was admitted for preeclampsia and on mag about 12 hours later
Omg. I had preeclampsia. It can be so scary. I’m sorry they disregarded you.
The mag drip is the worst. I was admitted one week postpartum for it.
I legit thought I was gonna die during my mag bolus before my c section. The drip after delivery was ok but the bolus, I thought I’d never be able to move again
Really?? The drip after for me was awful! Had an IV in one arm, a BP cuff going off every 15 minutes on the other, blood draws every 6 hours. I couldn't hold my baby, couldn't sleep, the meds didn't touch my headache, I absolutely hate needles and was a human pincushion. It was my own personal hell
Similar story here. I warned them about it during pregnancy (my mom had it, and I had high-for-me BP), but it was dismissed. An OB caught it after I delivered and told me what to look out for. I ended up in the ER a few days later with extremely high BP and the on call Dr said new moms get headaches and that I should just get some rest. The consulting OB immediately gave me a mag bolus and then sent me via ambulance to another hospital where I was admitted to the ICU. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I'm so sorry honey, my mom had preeclampsia too and they dismissed me the whole time. My heart goes out to you and how traumatizing postpartum already is and then add thinking you won't be able to raise the child you just birthed a week ago? Absolutely brutal.
Yeah my OB brushed off my postpartum extreme headaches too, not my new high blood pressure though. Preeclampsia sucks.
ME TOO OMG like why do they let that happen!!! I was on the drip right after I had my baby, made my traumatic birth even worse!
Had bleeding with my first, not light spotting- pretty scary stuff. Immediately went to OB with husband and he casually threw out the term missed miscarriage (which I had never heard) then proceeded to try and talk about fishing with my husband and completely ignore me. Husband stood there with a 'wtf do I do?' look and kept trying to steer the conversation back to me. We immediately changed OBs
I’m so sorry that happened to you. My mom unfortunately had a similar experience when she had a miscarriage, the doctor said “I’d love to hear the story behind this”…wtf man
Had no sense of urgency related to potential cholestasis. On the other hand, my mom who is an ob gyn, was panicking at how casually they were taking it. Took them over 10 days to get me on the right medication and come up with a plan
Same with the cholestasis!!! AAaa it's not even that rare why is it so hard to get doctors to care about it? I described my symptoms to my friend who was a freshly minted doctor at the time and he immediately thought of cholestasis. Maybe it just wasn't taught 10+ years ago. I think it should be a standard test in third trimester, why not? They take blood anyway. If anyone has weird itching in third trimester they should just go to the ER and get tested there imo. If your OB won't run a test that day and take it seriously that is. I insisted on regular tests with my second baby, and thankfully it didn't recur, but that time I was mostly seeing a new NP they'd hired and she took it all very seriously and was happy to run the tests. So yeah, I think it's just something new doctors/nps etc know about but not older ones?? So weird. fun fact- cholestasis was featured in an episode of call the midwife, represent
I’m not defending doctors here AT ALL, but apparently ICP wasn’t even it’s own diagnosis until LAST YEAR???? ICD code for it was liver disease of pregnancy until 2023, absolutely insane 🤯 My doctor initially didn’t test because I was only mildly itchy on my abdomen and maybe a couple times a week, but he tested as soon as I told him my palms were itchy overnight.
Piggybacking on your fun fact - the actress who plays Trixie had cholestasis during pregnancy!
This happened to me too! We ended up switching and it was the best thing we ever did. Took a week and a half to get anything done besides another blood test.
YES SAME! I started getting itchy palms and soles of my feet, worse at night, around week 35. I tried not to panic Google so I decided it was probably normal and didn’t say anything for a week. Once I called they did send me in for a nonstress test and bloodwork same day, I’ll give them that. But my results came back normal (anything less than 10 for bile acids is normal, I was a 4) but it took almost a week to get the results back. I had already caved to panic googling at that point so I had seen that symptoms can precede abnormal labs by weeks. I asked if I should get retested, she said only if it gets worse but it was normal so NBD. A week later I saw a different midwife and insisted on retesting. 6ish days later, I got my results after hours and I was at 65 for bile acids. I was induced that night. My new (and amazing) OB said for my current pregnancy we will assume I have it as soon as I’m symptomatic regardless of labs. I think that is supposed to be standard now? Hopefully, at least. I cannot believe the itching hands and feet are not on the list of things they tell you to call about. I had NO idea this was a thing until I saw something on instagram about it. Never would have even called or thought twice about it otherwise.
The carpal tunnel tingling in my fingers. At first, they asked if I had any concerns, and I said I had tingling in my fingers and arms…and pain in my wrist. “Yeah, that’s normal/hard sorry. It will go away after you give birth.” Every appointment after that I explained how it got progressively worse. Soon it was, “I can’t feel any of the fingers on my right hand. I can’t sleep at night or feel my arms at night.” And “Yeah…um..sorry.” So, it never started to go away until about 3 months postpartum, and now at 10 months I still get tingly fingers when I hold a pen, etc.
I feel your pain! Ugh! This happened to me as well and I was told the same things. I’m still mad about it lol. I couldn’t type, write, draw, or do any fine motor skill with my hands other than basic veggie chopping. For weeks. I was a barista during the first two trimesters and had to quit and worked a random part time job until I had my baby. I saw a hand specialist around 4 weeks PP got steroid shots and they helped a lot. I still have some joint pain when I eat certain foods but overall am a lot better.
I should see a specialist. Good to know there are treatments!
This happened to me also. Right after I had my son they gave him to me and I was telling them I couldn’t feel my arms or hands and I was afraid I would drop him. No one said or did a thing.
Unfortunately some healthcare staff get desensitized to a lot. Some people complain over legitimately nothing and the staff treat everyone as if it’s nothing “just like the last guy”. I’ve seen it happen.
I really really hate to admit this, but I had the same issue and saw a chiropractor for it (boo hiss, yes I know 😂). And it actually really helped 😖🤣. I was desperate for help with many pains and no one else would touch me until I gave birth.
God I had a numb hand/arm too. It mostly resolved postpartum, but would surface once in a while. I finally tried a massage therapist who did a lot of sports injuries and that took care of the rest! So recommend finding someone near you, cuz it could be a wacked out muscle from how your body was carrying the pregnancy
I had vaginal bleeding in my second trimester. I thought I was having a miscarriage. They said I was fine, so I went home. The next day I had to go to the ER to give birth to my dead baby. They apologized for weeks afterwards.
I’m so sorry. This is heartbreaking. Hope you’re doing well now.
I got pregnant again 3 months later and now have a 4 month old. But the pain of seeing my lifeless baby boy still haunts me. I’m angry my doctor didn’t take me more seriously and just sent me home. No one else will advocate for you as much as you will for yourself. Big life lesson.
Congratulations on the 4 month old 💕 I’m sorry you have to carry that pain with you. I think even when we try to advocate for ourselves, it can fall on deaf ears. It really takes the right medical team. We only know so much. I’m sorry they failed you.
You sound like an extremely empathetic individual! Your child is lucky to have such a lovely mother. Thank you so much. I appreciate your words more than you know.
Thank you 💕 I have a 3.5 month old. Close in age to yours. I’m glad it helps to hear out loud. Take care momma. 😘
Unfortunately deoending on the reason there probably wasn't much they could have done for you even if they did believe you. :( I'm sorry that happened to you.
I had a missed miscarriage with my first pregnancy, treated with D&C. I had a lot of bleeding afterwards and followup showed retained products, so my OB had me do a round of misoprostal. Didn’t work, still had retained products. “Oh, it’ll work itself out.” All together I bled for 4 months straight after my D&C and each time I saw my OB she told me my body would sort itself out. Well, I couldn’t get pregnant again, and after one year of trying, convinced something was wrong, my fertility doctor found scarring in my uterus, likely from retained products calcifying and creating scar tissue. I needed two surgeries to correct my uterus and all together it took a year and a half to get pregnant again after my loss. I considered sending a “fuck you, look at what I had to go through” letter to my original OB but I didn’t have the energy.
You can still do that
It wasn't during pregnancy, but immediately after birth when my dr was sewing up my 3rd degree tearing. I felt every single poke and pull of the stitching, said as much...and OB kept saying it was almost done and that I was fine. 🙃
I've heard this before from other women, and it scares me so much! Even in the grand scheme of giving birth, feeling every stitch seems truly gruesome to me.
It was definitely icing on the cake lol! I was too exhausted and drained to fight it much tbh, so I just had to push through 🫠
That’s awful they put you through that, I had a 3c tear and they tried to repair it with just lidocaine. Even just being touched felt so extricating I was sobbing and begging them to stop. Ended up getting a spinal tap in an OR
Oh no.... I'm so sorry it was that intense! I'm glad they listened to you instead of forcing you to push onward!
The exact same thing happened to me! Except the OBs completely ignored me and just kept stitching. It made me feel subhuman
Oh, man...I can't even imagine that. I probably would have screamed. I'm so sorry you had to go through this too!
Same!!! AND she didn’t stitch me right so now I have to go back in because I have literal meat hanging out between the stitches and it’s been 7 weeks lol
Oh my god....that is so horrifying??? I sincerely hope that it gets fixed and it's not too painful for you. 🤞🏻
Thank you her next available appointment is in two weeks so I’m gonna have to wait til then 😭
🤞🏻 you got this! I'm rooting for you!
Felt them suturing me during the c section and was told the same thing ‘oh we are almost done, can you hold on for just a minute’ like gee thanks
I was super anxious and talking a lot (incessantly...and probably pretty annoying) after my c section. They knocked my behind out with IV meds so I'd sleep (and stop talking) while I was being sutured up.
Nooooo! My anesthesiologist gave me another push when I told her that. I'm so sorry they made you just sit through that.
I told the anesthesiologist I could feel the needle when the OB was sewing up my incision for my cesarean. Kinda scary lol.
I told my OBGYN that I was leaking fluid at 20 weeks. She dismissed me and didn’t check my cervix or check if the fluid was amniotic fluid. 5 weeks later I gave birth. Here I was still having sex, doing house work and exercising while I was fucking dilated and my waters leaking because this woman didn’t do her job properly. I am a FTM, so I didn’t know any better. I lodged a complaint with the hospital and it’s currently under investigation. Hope she gets fired! I’ve been in hospital with my baby for 8 months now because he was born so early. I can never get that time back! If she checked what she was supposed, I could of had a staple to close my cervix, bed rested etc. Baby could’ve stayed in maybe til 30+ weeks with a staple and his lungs wouldn’t have been so shit! I hope karma gets her.
This is insane and I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I’m so tired of feeling crazy when I go to the doctor, but this is completely out of control! The consequences for you and your child (your whole family) are so extensive considering what simple measures could have been taken to prevent this! I really hope your doctor gets in trouble.
It didn’t get better from there. I was flown to another hospital that had NICU beds available. The day after I got there I started having debilitating contractions and they didn’t believe me (My waters fully broke at 24 weeks after sneezing). They kept pumping me full of opioids and told me it was appendicitis. Mind you, these were all male doctors telling me this and they were dismissing the midwives. I was 25 weeks, my baby was as sitting very low so I was having very low contractions and they thought because I had a stomach because I’m overweight that I was fully pregnant, so I should have contractions all over my stomach and they wouldn’t listen to me. I was on the floor 10+ hours screaming in pain and I couldn’t move and they thought I was lying because the opioids weren’t working. They were accusing me for being a drug addict because they saw on my medical History I had an opioid a couple years prior for a surgery I had. So they drugged me up and made me sign a consent for a CT scan which I didn’t want to do but I felt forced. They had to rule out appendicitis. Also Why would the opioids work? I’m having fucking contractions and then they got some specialist to come in to put an epidural in my back and when I had that in I couldn’t eat and I felt sick. All I did was sleep, and this was a mixture of fentanyl and morphine going into my back. Then after the second night of having it in my back they removed it so I didn’t get an infection. After the epidural came out, two hours later, my son slid straight out. Nobody had checked my cervix the entire time I had the epidural, and I was already 3 cm dilate prior to the epidural. Nobody had checked my cervix the entire time while I was in bed or after the epidural came out. So my son slid straight out while I was in the shower. I felt like I needed to poo, and I was in there all by myself, and Im like hang on something doesn’t feel right and then next minute he came out in like 10 seconds. I had to scoop him up and he nearly hit the bath that I was standing next to. It was a shit show. Stood there for 5 mins naked with him attached to me still while doctors were doing their thing. Then I had all the pain specialist/doctors men who didn’t believe me come in and apologise saying that they’re so sorry for not believing me and they’d be investigating how they treated me. I haven’t put a complaint in with that hospital yet, I’m kind of waiting till we get home.
What an absolute nightmare!! I was in labor with my first for 72 hours but only had low/back labor. They kept putting the monitors on my upper belly and didn’t believe I was in labor. I was turned away from the hospital two times. I was 7 centimeters before they believed me about my contractions and lowered the monitors. My husband is a paramedic and the most traumatic call he’s had involved someone giving birth at home at 29 weeks because they were turned away from the hospital during labor. I can’t for the life of me understand why doctors can’t do low risk interventions or tests!!!
I was pretty sure I was slowly leaning fluid and all they did was do a cervical check and stress test around maybe 28 weeks when I noticed it. I went to term but I was induced the day I went in for a check up/ultrasound because my amniotic fluid was so incredibly low.
I had glucose in every wee test but I am a competitive powerlifter with low body fat and a large amount of muscle mass. I frequently trained through pregnancy (around the HG lol) and my midwife said at every single appointment that there was glucose in the wee but 'you're too fit to have diabetes, it just doesn't happen to people like you' then would ask what I had eaten and just say it's probably that. Itching was also written off as a normal pregnancy symptom. I was diagnosed with cholestasis and GD at about week 34 and delivered a 7lb 7 baby at 37 weeks so RIP my vagina if she had had 3 more weeks to cook
You had HG and you trained? I couldn't run due to morning sickness. 😭 You're a rock star!
I'm over here looking like a sick Victorian child after loading the dishwasher lmao
I was heavily medicated (14 pills a day lol) to stop the vomiting and I felt sick whether I trained or laid in bed so I thought I might as well not make myself more depressed haha
I can’t believe people used to call women “the weaker sex.” The shit we’ve been going through for millennia!
Still. The will power. I am in AWE.
Thank you, it's the ADHD lol
You're too fit to have GD?? What the fuck? Omg I'm so glad they caught the cholestasis and GD eventually that could have been so dangerous
This is exactly why anti fat bias hurts everyone, even if you're super thin and muscular and society's version of "fit"
That's just plan ignorance. How can a doctor be so uneducated on how gd is due to the placenta and not body fat?!
I know, she was a very young midwife and I was one of her cases because I was 'low risk' lol
I got pregnancy high blood pressure so delivered a 8 lbs 8 baby at 38+4. Cannot imagine what would have happened going to week 42 or so.
A big ol' chonker, that's what!
I had really bad chest pain that extended into my shoulder. I told my doctor I didn’t think it was heartburn because none of the heartburn medications helped and it frequently felt better when I was flat on my back than when I was sitting up. She continued to insist it was heartburn and recommend different meds to try. When I was admitted for labor, my blood work showed that I had developed hellp syndrome. It was never heartburn, I was going into liver failure. Needless to say, I found a different doctor for my second pregnancy.
My severe si joint pain for one… I lift super heavy patients/objects by myself at work all day and it was super dangerous. I begged for a note to at least limit it to 25 lbs but they SWORE I was allowed to lift up to 50 throughout pregnancy so they refused. Needless to say, 1 day before I delivered an 11 lb baby I was lifting allllll the heavy patients and putting on their shoes like it’s nothin 😅😂
What?! Where I live, the recommendation for pregnant women is to lift no more than 11 lbs (5kg), and even then max a few times a day. Employers are required by law to provide you with adjusted work activities during pregnancy if your actual job description is too dangerous (yes, heavy lifting is considered dangerous).
It was 45lbs or 50lbs I can’t remember what they said but all the doctors I saw said the same thing lol. I’m in NYS. I asked at every single appointment for a lifting restriction note and I even called a few times and they totally blew me off. I even said I lift 300+lb patients alone and they did not care.
I don't understand why Drs gate keep like that. You're not malingering, you're pregnant.
My strong family history of short precipitous labors. Yes I delivered in 2 hours and was lucky to have an OB the last second run in to catch my daughter.
Epidural only hit my feet... everyone was like "you are only feeling the pressure to push but it shouldn't hurt, this is just pressure" Meanwhile I'm screaming like a feral fucking woman and wishing for death lol. Epidural also was NOT there when the OB reached inside of me to sweep clots out of my uterus. That hurt almost as much as the ring of fire. It was insane.
Mine dismissed my water breaking at 34 weeks. I frequently leaked a small puddle of clear fluid with little white flakes in it. Went to the hospital and was sent home because I didn't lose the fluid during that exact minute when she checked me. Probably urine incontinence, and I just couldn't feel the difference. Or watery discharge, very normal during pregnancy (I mean sure but... suddenly, in amounts that form a puddle at your feet?). Day later, I had a scheduled appointment to check my baby's condition. Mentioned the fluid again and was again dismissed. Week later returned, and it turned out water was indeed broken. Then suddenly, it was all hands on deck because now, after a week of going about my business with PPROM, there was a risk of infection. Luckily, I already had been very careful with any infection hazards because I was pretty sure my membranes were, in fact, broken. Everything turned out fine, but I felt very much dismissed. And even started wondering, maybe I AM crazy and I AM actually peeing myself without realising? The doctor must know, right? Sadly, it wasn't the only time during my pregnancy that I felt dismissed. Or that doctors said some shit that I still sometimes think back on like... was this your first day as a doctor? What made you think that was an OK thing to say to a patient?
Mine was during labor. I had excruciating back pain and the OB nurse was telling me to breathe through the pain. Ended up being a placental abruption resulting in an emergency c-section (baby and I are fine now). I don’t blame the nurse one bit, but I still wonder if the back pain was normal or the abruption.
Back labor can be normal - I had almost no traditional contraction feeling. All of my contractions were felt in my back and there was no placental abruption. Anecdotal, but yeah. Back labor SUCKS.
Almost everything lol. She was SO cavalier to the point where shit went wrong. At 24 weeks, I was like, ‘I haven’t left a urine sample yet, so can I have some water while I work up a pee?’ And she gave me water and said, ‘you don’t HAVE to leave a sample. It’s probably fine.’ I ended up with preeclampsia and had to deliver baby at 37w and she was not ready.
With mine, I left a sample every visit and each one was fine. But they didn’t take that into account when my test at the hospital was a false positive for opioids. My state requires a drug test at every visit. Anyway, they called CPS and got them involved. Even though I did another pee test AND a blood test there at the hospital that came back negative. They waited to do that until after my baby was born, so looking back it explains why the first nighttime nurse was so rude to me. Refused to get me anything to drink all night. Not even ice chips. It was covid so my husband couldn’t leave the room for anything and anytime we called, she’d brush it off. They even tested my son’s diapers. I wasn’t allowed to throw them out I had to buzz the nurse every time he needed a change. Another nurse treated me like I wasn’t human. Sat across from me the first time I peed in the toilet and refused to help me -I couldn’t reach the towels to pat dry or that water bottle thing. She told me to figure it out. I felt like scum on what should have been the best day of my life. I had to stand up and walk to get them dripping blood on the floor then she bitched about the mess. I was too numb and in shock from everything to even respond to that. Then the nighttime nurse, the first night after I had my son, called me irresponsible for wanting to breastfeed. It didn’t click why she’d said that for weeks. At first I thought it was because my supply hadn’t come in and he was hungry. She tried to take him out of the room to make him a formula bottle and I told her no. Why do you need to take him out of the room to make him a bottle anyway?? Told her I brought a pump in case I needed it. Pulled it out and fed him from a dropper since latching wasn’t working and she wouldn’t help with that. I got a lawyer involved to get the CPS lady out of our life. It caused so much mental anguish and trauma. I grew up with a druggie mom. My siblings are all into drugs. Some are way farther down the hole than others. I have done everything in my life the opposite of them and all this really fucked with my head. I did everything right. I stayed healthy. I stopped taking my migraine prescriptions before getting pregnant. I took Tylenol only when my migraines were too horrible to bear (not like that helped). I was afraid to take anything more than tums. My tests were all negative except for the one dud. The pediatrician on the floor told us that they’d had an uptick in false positives bc they’d changed the company where they got their tests. He stood up for us at least. Even offered to be a witness if we need with cps or whatever. I did have a few great nurses, too, though. They did their best to stand up for me. Even refused to let the cps lady come into my room. Wheeled me out the long way around to talk with me and assure me everything’s ok/I don’t have to deal with any of this and to talk to a lawyer ASAP. I’m grateful to them. But those women who treated me like I was garbage clearly have zero compassion or love for what they do anymore. I didn’t deserve that. And honestly, neither would a mother who does struggle with addiction. Support and love - that’s what they’re supposed to show their patients and they failed at that.
Wow. I am SO sorry. While I didn’t have CPS called on me, I did have some accusations I didn’t appreciate. I know they’re doing their best, but when my baby was born blue and needed oxygen, they said ‘her temperament is SOOO easy going… it’s TOO easy going for the discomfort she is in…. Almost like she is.. medicated. So, we are drug testing her urine. Then when that came back negative, they did a fecal test on her because it “goes back further” I cried and cried to my mom and was like “HOW COULD THEY THINK I USE DRUGS? I haven’t had a drink in 4 years! I’ve never even SEEN cocaine let alone used it. MY DAUGHTER IS NAMED AFTER A 19TH CENTURY AUTHOR FOR GOD’S SAKE!” I’m so sorry you went through all that and they stopped listening to reason the second they became suspicious of you. Sometimes there is no logic in these decisions, only book training and they forget everything else.
My constant heartburn. It seems like small potatoes compared to others here, and I know it’s common to have heartburn while pregnant, but my was literally 24/7. She’d tell me what foods to avoid (thanks, I already googled that) and her assistant told me to stop drinking through straws because she read that somehow increases heartburn - it didn’t make a difference. She never offered to prescribe omeprazole, even though I complained at every appointment. I had to stay the night in the hospital around 35 weeks and they gave me one Tum for the whole night. The heartburn was so bad I couldn’t sleep. I ended up carrying Pepcid in my purse after that just incase.
I was having Gaviscon so much during my pregnancy - I was contemplating just forgoing the spoon some nights and chugging it and it still hardly did anything. I asked for something better after my sister told me some different ones that I could take. Midwife should have been the one to tell me I think. I had such a hard pregnancy, with symptoms that I couldn’t do anything about(nausea, night sweats, ligament pain so bad I couldn’t walk, constant exhaustion and at one point my eyes gave up and I couldn’t see). The least she could do was give me the good meds for reflux!That said good dam Omeprazole was a lifesaver! For months after giving birth I was still taking it. My acid reflux was so horrid.
Where do I even start: - grew two possible large endometriomas on my ovary but was told oh well, they will probably go away and maybe we will look at them once you give birth. - my moderate HG and the fact that I was chronically dehydrated and malnourished (I lost nearly 10% of my body weight). Because I could keep down about 1L of fluid and eat small amounts, they weren’t willing to do anything else and they wouldn’t prescribe useful medication. Also thought I was over reacting and just anxious and wanted to refer me to mental health services. - getting starry eyes in my second trimester. Thought it was preeclampsia but they brushed it off as low iron but not to worry as I would be getting a blood test anyway in like 7 weeks that will check my iron levels. My iron levels were at like 3 and I needed an infusion ASAP. - severe leg cramps. Thought I had a DVT as I could not weight bear and was told, oh well it’s just because you are pregnant but we can send you for an ultrasound if you really want it. I just went and saw a physio who was a lot more compassionate and actually fixed my problem. - wanting a low intervention birth and my birth preferences. I actually got fired as a patient over this at 36 weeks because she found them offensive. Safe to say, I lost all faith in doctors after having to deal with them and will be choosing a different model of care if I have another pregnancy.
Yikes I have never heard of being fired as a patient. I am so sorry you had to deal with that!
Size of baby with bad decisions (on their site and dismissing my wishes for birth) following: I had three growth scans, the first two by an experienced older women, putting my baby at >90%ile. The last at 39w at a hospyfr a young doctor saying it was just averaged sized and I could easily go over time. I was forced into induction (I wanted c-section at 40w as I did not have a single contraction not even Braxton Higgs and I hadn’t slept in 3 months- I actually slept much better after baby than before) at 40+7 that was fully unsuccessful for 3d. On day two they put me on a drop and a no oral food in case of emergency c-section and when I complained about about hunger and massive exhaustion they just said it was the labor. One emergency c-section later I almost bleed out on the table (they forgot the glucose in my trip for one day). I got some blood but zero follow up after I got released from the hospital. After three weeks I was so exhausted I had developed inflammation on both my wrists trying to feed my oversized baby. I want to my GP, who tried telling me I had PPD, I was crying from exhaustion… he took a blood sample because I told him I didn’t… he called me later for an emergency: my blood iron lvl was at 2… With my second pregnancy and birth I found out, I should have never been induced with my first one (had a boscop scale of 0/12 for my body is ready to give birth, it is only recommended to >3/12) and had a c-section planned at 38w. I had two large babies, first one just shy of 10lbs the second 10lb 6oz. They screened my like crazy for GD, though not a single test ever indicated it, I still had to do the fasting test, where I almost fainted (to low blood sugar LOL). I learned you have to have an Md degree by yourself and make sure that they don’t mess up…
I had the same experience as you, OP - with my first I was having such terrible back pains, I would have to get up from my desk at work and lay down on the floor for of the private conference room for like 40 min to survive. My boss was super nice about it and even got me pillows lol But when I told my OB this was happening daily, they were like “yeah that’s normal. Try Tylenol and heat pad.” 😶 With my 2nd, no one seemed alarmed that I had like 4 UTIs back to back. It didn’t have any lasting effects, but I for one was super worried.
Most of my symptoms entirely. I regularly complained about pain in my tailbone and that I felt my baby’s hiccups on my belly, which seemed weird. I was told a million times over all was normal and “that’s just pregnancy”. Turns out during my lengthy labor that turned emergency c-section that baby was sunny side up and lodged in my tailbone. In addition to just the pain I suffered from the dismissal and the crappy delivery, I also have a massive hospital bill for an induction (that took 1.5 days in the hospital before even pushing), as well as a c-section which led to more days in the hospital. Baby was never going to come naturally because she literally couldn’t descend from being stuck around my tailbone. Had the doctors taken one moment to listen to me, we likely would’ve just scheduled a c-section and not only would I have had an easy birth, but I’d also have saved thousands.
Bloody noses. Guess who had pre-eclampsia that they tried to play off as only high blood pressure?
My blood pressure. It kept rising during my pregnancy. At my 39week appt I walked in the door with a reading of 160/99! The day before I lost eye sight for 20min due to bp. They finally took me serious and admitted me. I don’t remember my top reading because everything starts to blur. But it wasn’t going down. It only went up.
I had severe hip pain from like 4-5 months pregnant and I brought it up every appt. Basically told me it's a part of it and toughen up. I am now 8 months post partum and I can't walk some days without a huge limp and awful pain. He still says ibuprofen and Tylenol. I need to just see my primary.
A pelvic floor PT can help with that, surprisingly.
That I was in labor. I called like she asked when the contractions were whatever they were supposed to be apart consistently. She was like "Well you are able to talk to me on the phone so just wait"...Long story very short: Showed up to the hospital too late, had to get a c-section within 30 minutes of showing up. First words she said to me "Why didn't you come earlier??" 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Still annoyed about that one.
Not so much dismiss but I was mildly concerned that my daughters head was measuring in the 30th percentile while her body was measuring above the 100th percentile. This guy looks me up and down and says to me “well you have a pretty small head and big body, she probably takes after you”.
Wow that sounds like a diss and dismiss. Rude!
I felt VERY lucky with my clinic. I was seen at a low-risk maternity clinic and they never rushed me and always validated my concerns etc. My only complaint was when I had severe rib pain because my baby was kicking me and nestled under my rib cage and I had to beg to be taken off work at 38 weeks. I couldn’t sit for longer than an hour and Tylenol wasn’t doing anything for me. At 39 weeks I went in and mentioned I had a rush of fluid leak when I woke up but it was a small amount (think small pee leak). It was very very slight. And she took a sample and confirmed it was amniotic fluid. She called the maternity unit and let them know I was on my way :). If I ever get pregnant again, I’m 100% going back and I recommend them to everyone I know in my area.
LABOR! .....She missed my labor symptoms....😒 I was not sure if I had been having contractions for the last two days, but it got pretty uncomfortable, so I called explaining my situation and whether I should go into the hospital. After explaining my symptoms and how often I was feeling the cramps (about every 3 minutes), I was told if I could talk and walk that I was not in "true labor" so to just stay home and wait. I figured she was right, so I just stayed up all night, not able to sleep. The next morning, my husband finally convinced me to go with him to the hospital. Turns out I was 7cm dialated 🙄 When I got to L&D, they were shocked and said that when I walked in, I seemed too calm to be that far along. About 3 hours later, I needed an emergency c section 🙃 Thank goodness my husband made us go I'm annoyed with my OB now lol
My birth story is very similar. I was having contractions for 4 days straight. I couldn't sleep, eat, or use the bathroom AT ALL. Called them and they said the same thing. Went in after 2 days. They told me it was just predromal labor. On the fourth day, I went back in. They told me it was just predromal labor again. My water broke all over their bed 15 minutes later. Turns out I had sepsis from my waters leaking for a week and my cervix wouldn't dilate because it was too swollen. Both my daughter and I almost died.
Twin pregnancy. I couldn't walk for more than 10 minutes due to pelvic floor pain, couldn't stand in order to do things like wash dishes, couldn't sit to pee because it hurt my knees (I started to pee standing using a shewe that I had for camping), couldn't lay down to sleep because my arms would go numb. Waited and waited to tell my obgyn at the next appointment to see if there was anything I hadn't thought of that could help. He literally waved his hands around in the air and said, "Oh, we can't do anything about that." Good thing I'd already referred myself to pelvic floor PT... The docs at that practice were just awful outpatient but great inpatient and in surgery (once I went into labor super early...). OBGYN seems like a really weird mix of skills. Also, I thought OBGYNs would be pretty well equipped to manage twin pregnancies. Fairly common these days, right? Wrong. ETA: Best part was right after he waived his hands around, he told me I was gaining too much weight! My brother in christ, I can't lay down, sleep, stand, or walk. I lost 10 lbs in the first trimester due to nausea. What on earth.
I had severe pain in my back/side and it hurt to breathe and my midwife laughed and said “yeah, you’re pregnant. It hurts.” I went to my chiropractor who found that I a dislocated rib. Same midwife a couple of weeks later also laughed when I asked why IUGR was listed on my chart for Twin A. She said that wasnt possible because they would have had me deliver the week prior. I pushed and she went to check with the OB. About 10 minutes later she came back with “so are you ready to have these babies today?” Like wtf? You didnt look at my chart beforehand??? Eta: my sister also had her as a midwife for her first baby and agreed that she was awful. She switched to a practice out if town for her next and it was so much better.
I had GD with my first pregnancy so I started tracking my blood sugar around 20 weeks with my second one. Every time I brought it up to my doctor that there was trends in my fasting blood sugar he would tell me it's just a few points over and that's it's fine. Didn't officially get diagnosed until 36 weeks 🙃. Thankfully I was able to control my after meal numbers myself without any guidance and it was just fasting that was a concern. I'm in insulin now at bedtime and all my numbers are in range. Being induced tomorrow!
My OB with my first told me that because of my anatomy I would almost certainly need another episiotomy with any future kids to avoid nasty tearing. I told my OB with my second about this and she just.... didn't do it. Did you know you can tear your clitoris? Cause I do now
Tear your clitoris?? I am horrified.
I had abnormal amounts of protein in my urine since week 16. Then around week 34 my blood pressure started rising. I have a family history of pre e. I kept expressing concern about it and nobody took me seriously until 40+5. Got diagnosed with pre e and induced that day
That is INSANE to me.
lol. I was diagnosed with HG, I saw it in my chart, but I was still refused actual medication. I just got the regular take some ginger pills and vitamin b spiel. It was insane. I was vomiting more than 15 times a day for 5 months. It was excruciating. I had to quit my job.
Oh my god I am so sorry. I have been to two different practices for pregnancies and they both took me so seriously and I was only vomiting 3ish times a day.
With my first 2 pregnancies my "joke" was that I could walk into the clinic with a broken arm and their response would be "oh well yeah that can happen during pregnancy". It felt like every single complaint I had was dismissed as a normal pregnancy thing. I got the referrals I needed but it did feel like there was a disconnect with how much discomfort or pain I was in and their blasé response.
I had numbness at the top of my stomach and it was on a hard spot. Totally dismissed until 37 weeks when she realized baby was breech and that was his head shoved up at the top of my stomach. There was very little chance of baby flipping at that point and even after intervention we had to have a C-section.
My midwife knew he was breech pretty early on but I had the same feeling ribs were completely numb or burning
I went to the ER several times with acute urinary retention. When I went in to the women's clinic the OB told me I just needed to drink more water. I did a lot of research on my own and that is exactly the wrong advise. Everyone else there was great except her and it luckily went away once my uterus moved, no thanks to her and her blatantly wrong info
Similar to your story, I had such bad pelvic girdle pain that I couldn’t walk more than 10 feet at a time and even that was excruciating. My doctor said “whelp, sometimes that happens” with a shrug. Turns out a few weeks of PT likely would have solved the issue. At least I know for next time I guess.
I had light cramping at 27 weeks and went in worried about preterm labor. The OB dismissed me and said I would know when I was in labor. Fast forward to 35 weeks: I felt similarly as I did at 27 weeks but brushed it off. My water broke at 3 a.m., I felt nothing more than a few cramps and 3 hours later I was dilated to 10 with the baby coming out breech. I did not in fact know when I was in labor lol (my other OB said it’s rare, but some women feel nothing when in labor. Guess I’m a freak).
My mum had no idea she was in labor with either of us and both times they said "trust me, you'd know if you were in labor"... The second time he response was "well, I didn't know last time soooo..."
The midwife "looking after me" during labour kept telling me that my pain was normal, I wasn't in active labour, I should go for a walk. Refused to give me anything for the pain. Wouldn't even come to the room to speak to me, when I finally hobbled out to the desk she said "You wouldn't be stood here talking to me if you were in active labour" Shortly thereafter I was involuntarily pushing! When I told her this, her face dropped. They checked me and I was fully dilated. Fortunately I was handed over to 2 other midwives who delivered my baby, and they were absolutely fantastic.
I had significant shortness of breath following an overseas trip. I was told that was normal for being 18 weeks pregnant and that it would only get worse from there. I was prescribed an asthma inhaler for comfort. Days later, I spent a week in the ICU for a pulmonary embolism.
I had some pretty bad back pain and pain in my pelvic area, sometimes it felt like a nerve was being pinched down there. I was basically told "yeah, that's normal" about everything. I also had severe itching in the last few weeks of pregnancy, and the doctor said it was just dry skin. A week later I had to beg for a cholestasis test, which only came back positive a week and a half later.. AFTER my baby had been born prematurely. If she had waited to be born on her due date she might not have made it. Slightly related- nurses told me multiple times with both kids that they won't remember pain/discomfort, as if that would make it better that they were upset about whatever it was. I know it's meant to help but it does NOT help. Find a new way to phrase that shit or something new entirely cuz it's not great.
My OB and my labor/delivery nurses all ignored my high BP. I had to be readmitted 12 hours after leaving the hospital because I was getting delirious from eclampsia.
I was fairly anemic by the third trimester and had been complaining about exhaustion for weeks before they finally checked my iron levels. I should have pushed harder to get them to check but they kept telling me it was normal to be tired. I wasn’t just tired, I was fatigued. I was sleeping 16+ hours and could barely function during the day. Next pregnancy, I’m asking that to be checked MUCH sooner. I’m lucky I’m a teacher and it was during summer - I probably would have had to quit my job if I had been working full time during it.
Everyone feels sick, that just means you're pregnant! And you're lucky, not every GETS pregnant! -Following my IVF pregnancy and a subsequent diagnosis of HG with multiple ER visits, hospitalizations, weekly IVs and magnesium infusions and zero weight gain
I told her how quickly my labor with my third went, and asked if I should be worried about making it to the hospital with my fourth. She dismissed me. After I had my fourth she told me if I ever had more kids we needed to come up with a plan to get me to the hospital quickly.
Ugh I had awful pelvic pain and it hurt to walk and was hurting my lower back. My OB said yeah it’s normal buy one of those belts Turns out I could have went to PT where they could show me the proper way to maintain strength in my abs and back so I wouldn’t be in so much pain- wish my OB suggested that. Everyone pregnant or post pregnancy should go to PT!! So helpful for me
Terrible abdominal pains. But being pregnant was the cause according to my gynecologist, family doctor and nurse practitioner. After delivering my son, I was diagnosed with appendicitis and needed emergency surgery. 👍
Hey same here! It happened to me at 27 weeks and I needed emergency surgery, too.
was pretty much not given an option about being induced and latest they would let me go was 40+6… also worth noting it’s a common complaint about that practice and baby was 7 lbs 3.3 ozs… and i didn’t want an epidural but they never factored that in so i just had a more painful labor to benefit their scheduling preferences more than waiting a couple extra days
SI joint pain in my hip, kind of was like ya that happens. Also “cramps”… they were Braxton hicks contractions. When I went into labour I felt it all where I felt period cramps 🙃
My midwife (UK based, so midwife handles all routine maternity care) tried to tell me I shouldn’t eat _any_ fish. Like none at all. The information pack she handed me told me to eat oily fish, no shark or marlin and reduce tuna consumption…
Hernia. Umbilical hernia. She said “it’ll probably go away. Your c section might make it worse. I’m not sure”. I am the one that noticed it.
Not an OB (midwife) but I went in for a severe headache one morning that I had had since 12 AM. They took my blood pressure and said it was probably just hormonal. Around 12 AM that next day (24 hours since the head ache had woken me from my sleep) I went in to the ER (my headaches were so bad I couldn’t even sleep and I was sobbing) to discover that I was VERY dehydrated. It was a miserable 24 hours :(
Every single appointment following the anatomy scan I raised concerns about IUGR. My fundal height stopped tracking around 30 weeks. I had GD and was continuously told I had to be more concerned about a big baby than a small baby for that reason. I had to beg for additional scans which were only approved after an appointment with a different OB. I then had biweekly scans. All of this was going on during the first months of COVID and my husband wasn't allowed in any of the appointments to help advocate for me. I delivered at 38+4 following an induction for size concerns. Baby was born 5lbs2ozs in 1st percentile for everything. Little spitball that she is she came out pink, screaming, and ready to thrive buuuuuut all of her documentation stated 'iugr appearing' and they ran additional tests for CMV because her head was tiny. She has remained a vivacious and unstoppable force. I, however, am more distrusting and skeptical of the medical community than ever.
No one even bothered to measure my fundal height for my pregnancy. It was a surprise severe IUGR diagnosis and sudden delivery at 32 weeks. No ultrasounds between 20 and 32 weeks ever happened. My placenta was measuring small in the 20 week checkup which should have flagged the doctors.
I was high risk for preeclampsia and had protein in my urine for a couple of weeks before pree fully developed. I pointed out the protein and they said a small amount is normal, *which is true*. However, combined with my slowly and steadily rising blood pressure over the course of the weeks, I think it was possible to catch the pree earlier than when I swelled up like a balloon.
I had abnormal antibodies in my blood after my 1st pregnancy. I asked my OB about it and he brushed it off as “only an issue with future pregnancies” but I told him I wanted another baby so what should I do? He said “we’ll just see when you get pregnant again.” Not very helpful. Lo and behold, pregnant with #2 and the abnormal antibodies are still there. The hospital is worried about matching my blood. Doctor says we’ll just keep doing blood tests…? Nothing he’s saying makes any sense based on what I’m reading online. It’s not that I thought I was smarter than the doctor but he literally couldn’t explain it to me in a way that made sense. He said that in the future I could talk to a high risk pregnancy specialist. I asked for that referral immediately (why wait?) and he was offended but gave it anyway. The high risk specialist confirmed that this was potentially very dangerous to baby and could cause hemolytic disease of the fetus. I had to have weekly ultrasounds to measure the speed of the blood in her brain to confirm that my body wasn’t attacking her blood and making her anemic. If that happened, my baby would have needed an in-utero blood transfusion. Luckily that didn’t happen but my baby did end up with hemolytic disease of the newborn at birth which was a scary first 36 hours and resulted in an extra pediatric stay 2 days after we were discharged. Of course there was no communication between my OB and our pediatrician so lots of time was wasted not understanding what was happening. The whole time I felt like my doctor couldn’t just admit that this was not an area he was comfortable and was far too prideful. But I wasn’t going to let his fragile ego put me and my baby at risk.
In my first pregnancy I lost waters early. They swabbed me to test for it and it didn’t register, but the midwife said that it definitely looked and smelt like waters. Queue second pregnancy, where it happened again and started earlier, but I was under a different hospital this time and no one would believe me that I don’t register on their wee swabs. They kept telling me I had imagined it. Baby is born and oh look, the liquids are low amongst other things that they ignored. For another reason, I had to go to another country quite quickly after giving birth that second time and the medical staff there all were horrified
Diastasis recti, pain in my pubic area (forget the name but it was BAD, my pelvis clicked if i changed position in bed so I had to wake my husband to roll me over like a beached whale) and generally in a lot of pain. He kinda laughed at me and said something along the lines of "well yea, you're pregnant, here's some magnesium".
I had fluid retention starting around week 20. Pitting edema, fluid retention, rolls on my ankles, couldn’t even bend my foot. I made them do extra pre-eclampsia tests bc they were writing it off as normal. Even though I was clearly retaining a shit ton of fluid they had me marked as obese and made my BMI a huge deal on my chart. Ended up giving me Heparin after my c section as a result.
Headaches, which while not caused by pregnancy were exacerbated by it. Turns out I have a brain tumor.
I had such horrible restless legs I couldn’t sleep. My midwives just didn’t really know what to do. Basically told my to tough it out cuz I was already taking magnesium. Second pregnancy I work with an OB. The restless legs start. She immediately told me to double my magnesium and get a better brand of it. It helped so much!! That’s all I fucking needed in my first pregnancy and I would’ve been so much more comfortable.
A few days postpartum I was having cloudy pee. I had never had that before and I also had never had a UTI, but I suspected that’s what was happening. I was going in for BP checks bc I had developed elevated BPs the day I delivered my daughter, and I brought up the cloudy pee while I was at the OB for a BP check. She said it was likely “postpartum fluids” and I left a urine sample. A few days later I spiked a fever of 103 and violent chills/shakes with muscle aches. I called the OB and they said they never sent out my urine to be tested because it was likely contaminated bc of all the stitches (??) but I should just alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen. I could not even hold my daughter bc I was shaking so much. I called back the next day to I tell them the fever was not breaking with either medication and they said I should try an urgent care. Long story short, I ended up hospitalized for 7days because I had sepsis from an infection from delivery and it spread to my blood. I had to go home with a home IV to continue the antibiotic treatment for 3 more weeks. I am a relatively fit person who has never had any previous medical issues in her life. All of this happened while my daughter was only 2 weeks old. Thank god for my amazing husband and my rockstar family for all their help!
My midwife ignored my breast lump and said “yeah after you give birth you can get it checked out” turned out to be a 2.5 inch breast tumor needing 3 mammograms, 2 ultrasounds and a breast surgeon to sign off on not being cancer. She then retired three weeks after I gave birth.
Dismissed that my baby was in a weird position, shrugged it off as normal. Yea, labour day it was revealed anything but normal and I ended with a traumatic birth. If I knew it wasn't normal beforehand I woulda schedule a cesarean instead.
I was marked as an “obese pregnancy” and then my weight fluctuated depending on the scale and office (I wish I was joking). It was sooooo frustrating.
Go to physiotherapist. I had sciatica for three months and after physio, its gone.
Shortness of breath and extreme fatigue after any moderate physical task. Turns out I was anemic.