"Maverick": How One Baby Survived Iatrogenic Prematurity
Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 7:05PM
This video is featured on the Perinatal Quality Collaborative of North Carolina (PQCNC) web site. The organization describes itself as follows:
[A] community of organizations, agencies and individuals committed to making North Carolina the best place to be born. To achieve our aim we commit to collaborating with everyone who shares an interest in improving the health and health care of women of childbearing age and/or infants in our state. North Carolina for too long has ranked in the lowest 10% of US states in infant mortality and far too many North Carolina babies are born sick or before completing 39 weeks of gestation. Using the expertise of families and front line health care providers, together with quality improvement science we will improve the triple bottom line: better outcomes for babies and mothers, better experiences for families when babies are born sick or prematurely and better value for each health care dollar.
Reader Comments (9)
Unbelievable :/
Why am I so surprised every time I hear a story like this one? You'd think by now I'd come to expect it. I guess it's still hard for me not to think the best of everyone, even those who have betrayed the trust of women time and time again.
So proud of you for sharing your story!! So many people just don't know/understand the problems that come along with early birth/c-sections!
hearing this makes my heart break. so glad that that little guy pulled through.
The biggest pediatric group in our town withdrew from the hospital because they were sick of resuscitating 36-38 weekers who were induced or sectioned. And my question is, what's wrong with 40 weeks+...39 wks should not be the goal.
I have similar stories from a NICU nurse too. You have to wonder how many moms never realize this was physician error, not "bad luck." So sad that she's kind of blaming *herself* for scheduling early/not asking--it wasn't her that was in charge of the process; patients should not be expected to have medical degrees to prevent malpractice!
This makes me very sad. I am 28 weeks pg with my third (1 C-sec, 1 VBAC and now thinking of a HVAC) To be honest, doctor's scare me surrounding birth issues these days. Of course not all doctors are bad (not saying that) but the last 2 OB's I have had have been pretty terrible. Finally was able to get a Midwife with this pg.
I am glad her little guy was a fighter.
Insurance companies should make the OBs financially responsible whenever an early 'elective' induction or C-section leads to a NICU stay for the baby. You can bet the doctors would definitely know what happens to the babies they deliver if they had to pay for their care.
I am so sorry your family and Maverick had to go through this. It happens much too often. They wanted me to have my twins by 37 weeks & I refused. I had to fight to go past 38 weeks. I even bumped my appointment to 38 weeks and a few days to avoid the OB. I went into labour on my own at 38 weeks & 2 days. Thank goodness I went with my gut as Twin A was only 6lbs (Twin B was 8lbs). If she had been born earlier as suggested she would have been much smaller. My other babies were born at 41 weeks and the one after the twins was 13 days past his due date. They all came when they wanted to. My information did not come from the Doctors, instead it came from the many, many books I read. I had lost my trust in the medical community after mistakes were made on me & I decided I HAD to advocate for myself from then on & for my children & now my grand-children. By sharing here you may help other mothers become informed so they can make a decision based not only on the Dr. recommendations, but also on information they have researched. I was a research asssistant before children & I think that also contributed to my need to find out as much as I could.