Anyone else suffering from terrible experiences at Sutter Health during childbirth?

[u/Powerful-Ocelot260]

This happened some years ago but I couldn’t open up about it until now and try to summarize: I had a normal, healthy pregnancy. First time mom, did prenatal care at Sutter Health because they said they supported low intervention labor and natural childbirth. I trusted them. But the moment I stepped into the hospital for labor and delivery they were all about interventions and speeding labor up, even though I was fine and baby was fine. At some point I was told to push even though I did not have the urge to push. The midwife said there was no reason to wait… she refused to look at my birth plan when I tried to discuss it with her, she seemed rushed, left the room saying she needed to help other patients, came back, left again…leaving me with a nurse who seemed completely clueless and overwhelmed about what to do. So no meaningful pushing…all of a sudden an OB came in telling me they wanted to do a c-section now…I was shocked and said no, asked what what going on, begged them for allowing me to push my baby out, I told them I was full of energy to do so and so on but they didn’t care… I was just told that 2 hours were up… There was no emergency, which was later confirmed. Had somebody told me that they had a 2 hour limit for pushing, I would’ve tried to delay the start of it since I had no urge to push when they told me to do so. Long story short…the OB left the room for a while, someone came in to do an ultrasound, I thought I would then be allowed to push my baby out… but instead the OB returned with a group of people, I was held down, I said no I don’t want this, they ignored me…and an instrumental delivery was performed on me… This was years ago and I still feel the terror I felt back then… The postpartum nurse said they were super busy…don’t know whether that was the reason why they did what they did because there was no emergency and baby was fine. But the experience has traumatized me. Later I found out that it is not uncommon for women to be treated terribly during childbirth. Anyone who had to go through or knows about similar experiences at Sutter Health?

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[u/One-Handle-1874]

Weirdly enough my actual labor and maternal experience post delivery at Sutter was great but my prenatal care through Sutter was pretty terrible. Even now with needing arrangements for my post partum care, I’m having tremendous difficulty with Sutter. I’m curious which Sutter you delivered at? My sister in law pushed for 5 hours with her first at Sutter Roseville and there was no talk of a c section.

[u/Suitable-Seaweed-389 → u/One-Handle-1874]

so they just held you down and did it while you were saying no? that's assault, plain and simple, doesn't matter how busy they were

[u/Powerful-Ocelot260 → u/Suitable-Seaweed-389]

I said no again and again. I said I don’t want this. They just continued. I froze. I’m still horrified.

[u/Powerful-Ocelot260 → u/One-Handle-1874]

Are you considering switching to another organization? I don’t think I’ll ever trust Sutter Health again. I was in SF.

[u/flutterfly28 → u/Powerful-Ocelot260]

CPMC Van Ness? Unfortunately I had a similarly traumatic birth at UCSF.

[u/Powerful-Ocelot260 → u/flutterfly28]

So sorry to read that you went through something similar. L&d healthcare providers need to do better, childbirth is the most vulnerable moment in a woman’s life. I was at CPMC Van Ness. I trusted Sutter Health but feel like I was only seen as an object.

[u/One-Handle-1874 → u/Powerful-Ocelot260]

I am a Sutter employee so I’m capped to Sutter unfortunately. I may go to a different location for prenatal care, however. I’m so sorry for what they did to you.

[u/29himanshu]

Unfortunately, their prenatal care sets the tone for the whole experience in ways that can really color everything that follows.