Mom Seeks Legal Action Against Hospital that Forced Episiotomy

Kelly was in the middle of delivering her baby, at a California hospital, when she was forced to have an episiotomy she did not want.  Kelly said she begged the doctor not to do the procedure, but he talked down to her and she was cut after only one push.

This was her first child and she didn’t know what to do. She reached out to a group, Improving Birth, to get her story out.  She did not want other women to go through the trauma of her experience.  Here is what Kelly wrote to Improving Birth:

 “Dr. A came into the room and after two pushes he had scissors in his hands and told the nurse that he was going to perform as episiotomy. I said why? … I pushed two more times and he was going to cut and I said ‘No, Don’t Cut Me.’ Then I said ‘why, why can’t we try?’ He said why you don’t go home and try or go to Kentucky! So then after he yelled at me he cut my Vagina twelve times. So before the episiotomy the nurse said it’s only going to be a little cut. A little cut turned into Dr. A’s horrific rage against me as a human being and against my will to begin with. I wanted to cry so badly and I was so horrified while he was cutting me (sic).”

Even more amazing is that Kelly had the ordeal caught on video.  Be aware this an intense video.  It is just appalling that she was ignored and talked down to.  You can see in the video the horrible bedside manner from the doctor and how Kelly was aware it was not necessary at this point in the delivery.  She tried for so long to be able to hold the doctor and hospital responsible for the experience, however, no attorney would take her case.  The common consensus is that baby and mother survived the birth, so what is the problem?

The bottom line is that Kelly doesn’t want other women to go through what she went through.  She wants the hospital to be accountable for their actions.  Improving Birth wants women to have control over their body during delivery.

Do you think the doctor should be held accountable?