During my whole pregnancy, March 2019 -August 2019 - I got an unplanned pregnancy, without my health care insurance card. Only this was already a big deal, but every single time I stepped my foot in the hospital, all the staff made very clear that this was an “absurd” situation. It starts with having to explain the lack of the health card, they never did a movement to make me feel less bad about, then on my first echography the doctor asked why I got pregnant and how I was going to pay for the pregnancy. Then during my other exams that was always a question, always an issue, because nobody knows how to tell how much it cost. My second echography was also a trouble. The doctor didn’t seem happy to be there. Then at 24 weeks of pregnancy I bled and went to hospital, and again was a problem to get assistance. The same issues of how I was going to pay for the care, how expensive it would be to transfer me. Sept-Îles is one of the last cities you are allowed to have a baby at Côte-Nord, because here is one of the last cities with a proper hospital, but even so, there is not enough doctors and good equipment, so they are obligated to transfer you to Québec City or Montréal.
I stayed one day at the hospital with a detached placenta. The doctor confirmed that everything was fine with a third echography and told me I was good to go home and keep in bed for the rest of the pregnancy.
One week later I went back to the hospital with contractions, because it was in the back they couldn’t measure. The nurses got in panicked cause I was an immigrant and started to ask me questions like “Why I got pregnant? “ Did I had money?” “Why I didn’t got married before?”. While I was in pain, the doctor (one of those rotational doctors) examined me and told me I was in labour, and I had to be transferred to Québec. I didn’t have time, my water broke and my baby’s foot already went out. I had my baby with my father holding me in an examination bed and my sister holding my legs while the doctor screamed that I had to push and stay calm. The whole hospital time from my arrival until the transfer to Québec was of 5 hours maximum.
My baby was born at 25 weeks and 3 days, breathing, and got transferred to Québec. The nurses, the hospital director, didn’t want to send me as a patient because it would cost, so I went as the kid’s mother, walking within 2 hours of a premature labour. While my baby was being kept alive the doctor told us in a cold way that there was another baby. We thought that I’d lost the baby during the embryonic phase for the way she told us. When I came back with my baby after 3 months and half at CHUL, the hospital started to send the bills, $ 10,000.00 dollars. They charged the 5 hours of my time there as if it was a whole day of hospitalization full of care. They charged for exams that I didn’t manage to do. So I asked for my dossiêr and there it was: I didn’t have a loss at the embryonic phase, I had lost a baby at almost 20 weeks of pregnancy. When I arrived the hospital my body was with an infection. NOBODY EVER TOLD ME. My body was starting to collapse trying to expel my dead baby. We wrote a complaint about every single thing, asking them to reconsider the labour as whole day of hospitalization, talking about the xenophobic behaviour, talking about the stillborn baby. You want to know what they answered? I walked by my own legs and will to the hospital, the nurses only tried to help when they suggested and asked those things and because I’m an immigrant I have to pay 200% more of an hospital bill, because only by sitting in a bed I’m picking a place of a Québécois.
So we lost a baby, almost lost the second one for prematurity and for the lack of professionals and equipment. I could’ve died and even so, I’m being obligated to pay because, if not, they can sue me and I’m in my process to do the Permanent Residency.
During my whole pregnancy I tried to speak with the authorities for help. I went after the exams and hospital prices and I even thought to deliver my baby at home. But because information here about those subjects are not clear, I was made to believe that was less expensive to stay than to go back to my country.
As you can imagine the problem is not paying the bill, beside the fact I feel is not fair, but was the whole humiliation during my whole pregnancy, was the way all the professionals made me feel ashamed and guilty for being there. It was losing a child and not being able to grieve properly. Is the trauma of going back to hospital for my child’s care and feeling anxious and depressed to be there. It’s not trusting the health care of this city and not being able to conceive to stay here because I can’t have another traumatic pregnancy.
The fact I’m an immigrant was the whole cause of my problems, I speak French, not fluent, but I’m fluent in English and most of the time they didn’t made an effort for the communication to happen.
My doctor during the whole pregnancy was supportive but not as present and care taking. She wasn’t there on the hardest part and when her secretary called a day after our baby was born to ask why we hadn’t went to the appointment, we explained and she never called back, not to even know how I was.
The only two people that helped me was my assigned social worker and CLSC nurse, and because of them I had access of my dossiêr, and because of them I had the minimum of peace during my pregnancy.
In a world big and now accessible for a part of us, of course immigrants will exist in your community, learn how to deal with them, learn a little about your government laws on immigration, learn about your hospital prices or at least know who will know that information.
The lack of structure in Sept-Îles hospital is gigantic, it’s a city full of kids and babies and there is only one good paediatrician, there is not even a small neonatal ICU just to provide the minimum of hours the the baby and the mother to feel comfortable and not afraid of death because there is no equipment. I don’t understand why they don’t allow or don’t have midwives. And everything is all so stressful, that a lot of women go to Québec to have kids.
