Melissa's Story - Humber River Hospital, Toronto

7 years ago I was a first time young mom - 19 years old.

My water broke at midnight and I went straight to the hospital with my mother and sister.

I was 37 and a half weeks. My contractions were coming in slow. My OB already did a delivery that night and he was tired so a substitute took over. The nurse and sub OB made me take pitocin to speed up the contractions. 

When I was around 8 cm dilated I was having trouble keeping my cool and starting crying in pain. The OB was getting annoyed and told me I should've took an epidural, he was very condescending.

I was screaming for help and I felt like I couldn't do it anymore, I couldn't deal with the pain anymore.

The nurse tried calming me down and told me no one could help, I can only help myself. The OB told me to shut up, that I was scaring the other moms on the floor!

When I was pushing, he used his fingers to push my vulva more apart without my consent and I felt very violated. Not only that, it actually caused more pain for me but he didn't care.

When I finally delivered my oldest, he just pressed down on my stomach extremely hard without any warning and I delivered the placenta.

I'm still dealing with the trauma today. 

 

Submitted by Melissa Aroni