This is me today. I have to have a rant. I have to have it here because I am a grown up who understands that I can’t have this rant on Facebook where the people involved would see it and be made oh so sad.
I read a story this morning about the birth of a person’s child. This child was premature but is doing well. That’s good. It is the telling and interpretation of the story that makes me livid.
It starts with her water breaking 6 weeks early. She calls her sister who is a doctor. For a long time, I couldn’t figure this part out. Why? Her sister is many, many states away. She says that her sister helped her get into a hospital with a brand new NICU. I finally figured it out and it made me even madder than the rest of the story already had.
She had to call her doctor sister because she was 32 weeks pregnant and didn’t have an OB/GYN. She states later that she doesn’t trust doctors. (Until you need one.) She is of the ultra-conservative Christian, homeschooling (and now I presume, homebirthing) persuasion. I would have hoped she at least had a good midwife and not just some lady from a homeschooling group. However, a good midwife would have had a better emergency plan than “Call your sister” even if it just was “Call an ambulance.”
Ok, so how could her sister get her into a hospital? She doesn’t have admitting privileges in a land far, far way. I’m willing to bet she googled hospitals in the area and saw one that had just built a brand new NICU and said, “Drive there, stupid” or something similar.
But, you know where this is going. God provided and she was able to get into the hospital.
If you are a hospital and you have a brand new NICU and a woman about to make a premature baby wanders in off the street, I’mma guess you’ll probably take her in. I don’t know. Just my guess.
Anyhow, they admit her and put her in a bed. Labor stops. I hear that’s the treatment for that. I’ve heard tell there are drugs that might help too. Those aren’t mentioned in this story. They want the baby to stay cooking for at least another 10 days. God was faithful and it did. No thanks to those doctors and nurses and all their intervention and bed rest.
Speaking of interventions, she stated that she needed a lot of prayer to have the strength to endure daily blood tests. (Oh, were you being closely monitored by a team of professionals, maybe?) You don’t need prayer to endure. You just do it because you don’t have a choice. It isn’t going to kill you. You literally just lay there.
So the baby at one point was going the wrong way but then it turned around. That’s what they do when they decide to vacate the premises. Nope. Miracle.
Also for a while it looked like the umbilical cord was in the wrong place but after a few scans it turns out it wasn’t. Miracle – definitely not all the moving around the baby was doing a paragraph before.
It was eventually born and she didn’t need to have a c-section. That was good because she knew she needed to be able to get up and take care the baby and her other children. (Your mother always did say your husband was a lazy, good for nothing…..)
The baby did fine and was able to go home (after a 10 day stay in the brand-new, state-of-the-art NICU).
She was writing all this on Facebook in order to be able to thank all the people who cared for her unprepared self who prayed for her during her ordeal.
So of course everyone is commenting about how they prayed for her and how all this is proof of God’s love. I so badly want to say, “Wow, sounds like you did your absolute best to have major birth complications. Good thing you had great medical care. Do you trust doctors now?”
There are times when I so badly wish I had the immaturity of an internet troll.Â
There are few things I hate more than Christians on Facebook.
I’m not on FB because of things like this. Or a comment from a relative like “If one more thing happens today I think I’ll have a breakdown” or “so sad today” which sends my imagination off wondering What happened?! Then I find out later – nothing is wrong. You whine, you get attention and for nothing. Ugh.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the Christians who are on about god’s plan when this case was clearly medical intervention.
Oh man, I had a preemie and some of what she mentioned is super relatable, but UGH the doctors-medical-establishment-are-evil homebirthing crowd (we homeschool so I see it a LOT) are really frustrating. The religious aspect (and I’m a Christian) is awful because it’s not all because of prayer — what the heck. She doesn’t think some of those preemie parents whose babies DIDN’T make it didn’t pray, too? She’s treating God like an American Idol contest – more people need to call in and vote!! Gross.
“She’s treating God like an American Idol contest – more people need to call in and vote!!” That’s a PERFECT analogy.
And,that’s why I’m not on FB….
Oh, OHHHHHHHHH do I get this rant (and agree with your last statement. I have one of those on my FB and they’re DISGUSTING. One of the rudest, nastiest people I’ve ever known, at one point, they were a Sunday school teacher, and they spread huge amounts of hatred in the name of their religion. It’s horrible). I’m not going to judge the people who can’t get a doctor during pregnancy due to finances or being unable to understand the convoluted system we have for prenatal care for low-income folks, but if you’re actively choosing to wave away medical care? Yeah, Imma get judgy on that, because there are serious problems that have zero symptoms. And sure, thank God and the people who were praying for you, that’s awesome, but give a little credit to the people who dedicated their lives to save you from the poor decisions you made!!! ARGH. It drives me up the wall as well.
Maddening, isnt it? Sigh.