Forced antibiotic?

veganmama · #1 04-25-2003, 07:54 PM

One thing I am not happy about is that I have no choice and can not refuse the antibotic they give when you are in labor. I said I will refuse it and they said I can't because it is for the baby. Is this true at your hospital? When I had my son I got a horrible breast yeast infection which I blame on this one dose antibiotic. It took me 8 weeks to cure after a horrific battle. VM

Christa · #2 04-26-2003, 07:01 AM

I don't know about the hospital where you will be giving birth, but I don't see how they could force that. I work at a hospital & we can strongly recommend (maybe try to coerce), but we can not force you to do anything. You just agree that it is your fault if anything happens b/c you are going against medical advice.

Why do they want to give you antibiotics during labor - are you Group B strep +? I tested + with my second daughter, not with my first, but my first labor & delivery was so interventionist that I was dead set against having any interventions with the second, including an iv (which precluded the recommended antibiotics via iv).

This is not standard medical advice, but I did find some studies that found no transmission of GBS to the infant during labor if the mom didn't have any risk factors for passing it on (fever during delivery, prolonged rupture of membranes, and others that I can't remember). You may want to search for research on this topic if this is the reason for the antibiotics.

My midwives and the hospital disagreed with me, but I didn't get any antibiotics nor any interventions during my labor and delivery of Tessa and she was perfectly healthy. They did initially threaten me that they would treat the baby after delivery with a couple days of antibiotics as if she had contracted GBs even if she didn't, but they had no right to do that & I knew it. I stood my ground, & she didn't get treated, either.

The short answer would be that, no, I don't think that they can force you to take antibiotics during labor. The only place that I have heard can force anything is New York, I believe, has some laws that allow hospitals to force HIV+ mothers to take certain drugs during labor, but I have never heard of any laws allowing forced antibiotics.

kykarraliv · #3 04-26-2003, 07:47 AM

I do not know the laws where you are at, but, that baby is your child. You as the parent choose the type of medications your child will receive. Now I know that is not true in all cases in all states. Some states will force vaccinate a child and things have gone to court for forced treatment over the parents beliefs as to what is best for their child. I find it scary when the government think it has the right to make medical decision for a child over the parents wishes. That said. It would be very rare for the hospital to be able to force you to have antibiotics against your wishes. They are probably blowing smoke and are harrassing you. I have worked in many hospitals and in the hospitals I worked in we could not force any treatment the patient did not want. Doesn't mean that some doctors and nurses did not try to convince the patient otherwise, but once the patient said, "I am refusing ..........) We had to leave them alone. The same for decisions parents made for their child. We would have to get a court order to force a parent to do that.
Have you concidered a homebirth? Many women have give birth at home after a cesarian. Your reason to have the first c-section is not likely to happen again. You probably could have an at home VBAC. That way you avoid this hassle completely. It's your body and your child, stick to your guns and you make the decisions. Good luck.

Erin Pavlina · #4 04-26-2003, 08:38 AM

I am group b positive too.

With our first child we did tons of research and declined the antibiotics. We had to sign a waiver. So fine. No problems at all.

My OB with this current pregnancy flipped out when I told her we would decline antibiotics during labor. She threatened us with the following: "If you decline antibiotics we will hold your baby for observation for 4 days and subject him to an mri, a spinal tap, and frequent blood tests. I will have the pediatricians sit down and talk with you about how you are putting your baby's life at risk. I don't understand how you could refuse to save your baby's life. I have half a mind to report you to social services."

Needless to say, she is not my OB anymore.

Enter my new, wonderful OB. I told him that I had done a ton of research and the liklihood of my baby developing Group B Strep infection is just 1-2%. So I told him I will not take antibiotics prophylactically. I will however take antibiotics if any of the three following conditions is the case:

1. Premature labor before 37 weeks.
2. Membranes ruptured more than 18 hours.
3. Fever during labor

Under those three conditions I would definitely get them becuase the mortality rate on the baby goes to like 50%.

You've got to tell your OB, hospital, etc that you don't want to take antibiotics prophylactically unless you present with one of those three conditions listed above.

Christa · #5 04-26-2003, 08:44 AM

Erin,

That's pretty much the same agreement that I came to with my midwives when I was pregnant with Tessa. I got about the same spiel about taking the baby away for observation, too, & force treating her if I wouldn't do the antibiotics. That obviously did not happen, though.

veganmama · #6 05-01-2003, 06:31 PM

Thanks to all of you. I spoke with my OB today and told her I would be REFUSING the antibiotic, and could I be forced to have it? And she said no. It is my right to refuse it. But if I do test + for strep B or run a fever in labor then it will be strongly encouraged. I told her I would be open to discussing that if either of those situations happens. And she said we could start yeast meds right away if I did end up with the antibiotics. but it sounds like I can refuse. Also, in 2 weeks at my next appt I still see my OB, but 2 weeks from then I meet with the mid wife and we can go over the birth plan. Of course making sure I can water labor, have no antibiotics, help pull the baby out if my VBAC works, place the baby on me immediately and nurse while my husband cuts the cord. Then I want to bond for as long a time as they allow before they take the baby to give he or she a bath, take foot prints etc. I will also be requesting that those things be done in our room. Now I just have to pray that my VBAC works. Because everything was set last time for the same thing when my son was in distress from the cord and contractions so I ended up with an emergency c/sec.

Anyway, thanks for the posts on the antibiotic topic. I plan on refusing them. VM

Erin Pavlina · #7 05-01-2003, 06:34 PM

You go girl! Keep us updated.

Janine · #8 05-13-2003, 02:44 PM

I just had my baby on April 8th, and I did take the antibiotics during labor because of my Group B strep. Maybe it's lucky I did because I had a fecer during labor (which I didn't even notice). Because of that, my OB was worried and had a bunch of nurses and peds waiting at the delivery. My baby had a hard time breathing because her lungs were so full of fluid. It was so sad, because they whisked her away to the nicu and put all sorts of monitors and tubes in her. They think she had pneumonia and started her on antibiotics right away. Luckily, she improved within a couple days. It was harrowing, though. I sure hope you don't have to go through anything like that. She was very healthy otherwise. She was 9 lbs, 1 oz. But she did get a yeast rash and thrush from the antibiotics. ugh. So that's my experience!
Janine