As recommended by the Ministry of Health, women can let professionals know what their wishes are for the time of delivery through a birth plan, or in the absence of the document, verbally so that if everything goes well, and in as much as possible, everything happens according to the woman's wishes.
But you not only have the right to inform professionals of your wishes, but also to receive information on the processes that are going to be carried out, and to decide based on that information. This is what did not happen in the case at hand today, that of a woman to whom health will have to compensate because they did not carry out a respected birth.
It happened in 2010
As we read in Diario de Mallorca, back in 2010, the woman wanted to have a natural birth and with that purpose she went to the hospital of Can Misses, in Ibiza, to see if it would be possible. The answer was that they would respect their wishes as much as possible, but that the medical criteria would prevail.
Although he was not convinced by the answer, on November 9 he went to the hospital to give birth, and met the birth I had not wanted.
A lot of interventions I didn't expect
Although she had asked for freedom of movement, to facilitate dilation (as recommended for more than 30 years), they made her stay in bed connected to a serum and monitor, to the point that when she made the gesture to get up they prevented it.
In fact, he asked that they not give him a route if it was not strictly necessary, and when he told them that he did not want they told him that it was so that he would not become dehydrated and that in addition, since he was in the hospital, he had to take the route. The risk of dehydration came from the prohibition of eating or drinking, something that is also considered wrong as a general measure.
They probed her, despite the fact that she was able to get up to go to the bathroom, and put a medicine whose usefulness she asked, and nobody explained. During the expulsion they placed her on a colt against her will, and without allowing another posture to give birth; They broke his amniotic bag without his consent and even You had an episiotomy without informing or asking.
The protocols recommend that mother and baby not be separated at least in the first hourAfter giving birth, they separated her on several occasions from her baby, so that she could not spend the first hour with her son, making it difficult to establish breastfeeding. Similarly, the father could not be present in the process, because not only was he denied entry to the dilatation room, but when he got in, he was expelled from the room with various excuses.
Even in two trials they ruled in their favor
When his birth and his wishes were not respected, he decided to file a complaint against the health system of Ibiza (Ib-Salut), and both in the first instance and after the Superior Court, they have proved him right, at least in part.
The judges have not entered to assess whether the medical performance was adequate or disproportionate, and in this regard they decided not to rule in favor of the woman. However, they did consider doing so as far as treatment is concerned, when not be informed of such actions and by not having, therefore, his approval to carry them out.
Thus, the woman will receive compensation of 6,000 euros for the moral damages suffered, which seem very little if we take into account that she wanted to have a normal birth, as recommended by the protocols of the Ministry of Health itself, and received in return a fully instrumentalized delivery, without information on what she was was going to do every moment and acting against his will.
I don't know about you, but I get the feeling that it is very cheap to skip the patient's autonomy law, right?
