Meghan MacDonald thought she was well-prepared for the birth of her first child. She and her husband attended classes, did the research, and were highly anticipating the arrival of their bundle of joy.
But she says when she arrived at Halifax’s IWK Health Centre early one morning in July after her water broke, what was supposed to be an exciting experience turned into a traumatic one.
MacDonald alleges that from the start of her birthing experience, she was met with neglect and a lack of compassion — at one point being left in a room for 13 hours as she suffered from excruciating pain.
“If this could happen to someone like me — not that I’m any better than anybody else, but I feel like I was extremely resourceful and prepared — it could happen to anyone, and I’m pretty sure it probably does,” MacDonald told Global News.
Leading up to her daughter’s birth, MacDonald said she had received “absolutely extraordinary” care from the IWK’s perinatal centre, so she expected the same level of care during the birth itself.
“That is what built the foundation of what I was expecting to be my birth experience, and why I was so relaxed and why I was so confident going into this,” she said.
MacDonald first arrived at the IWK Health Centre with her mother and husband around 4:30 a.m.
She went to an early assessment area, where she was given underwear with a pad and told there was “no space” for her as 22 other babies were being born.
During her wait, she said she was checked by the resident and the doctor on-call. She knew she would have to get an IV later on, and asked if she could have a smaller needle because she has small veins and has previously had difficulty with IVs.
“Her response to that was … ‘I don’t care which size IV you get. I’m going off shift,’” she alleged.
After about four hours, she said she was moved to a room in the early assessment and labour ward. She laid on the bed, still wearing the dress she arrived at the hospital in, and said she was not offered a hospital gown, water, or even an extra blanket or pillow.
“I’m in labour and I’m a first-time mother and I don’t know what to expect,” MacDonald said. “No one even offers to help me go to the washroom or to show me where it is.”
MacDonald said she waited in that room, in pain, for about 13 hours, during which time nobody checked on her. She only got help, she said, after her mother went to find a nurse.
“The only reason why I received treatment was because my mother advocated for me,” MacDonald said. “I’d hate to think what would happen if she hadn’t been there.”
After her mother found her some help, MacDonald got a shot of morphine and was moved to another room and placed in a tub, where she laboured for another four hours.
‘Begging for someone to pay attention to me’
Prior to going to the hospital, MacDonald had prepared a birth plan — something she was encouraged to do by the staff at the perinatal clinic — but she said that despite offering it to a number of staff members, nobody read it.
The birth plan stated she wanted to have an epidural, which would have reduced some of the pain, after she was three centimetres dilated. At this point, she said she was about five centimetres dilated, but was told the anesthesiologist was busy and could not do the epidural yet.
“All I kept being told was, there’s no space for you. And during this … I see women constantly being wheeled up to the next floor,” MacDonald said.
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She said her mother asked why others who arrived after them were able to go up to the next floor, and was told it was because they were scheduled for Cesarean sections.
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“Had I known that — and I know the recovery situation for a Cesarean is longer — but I would have signed up for a C-section. I just didn’t know that was available,” MacDonald said.
“So I just, quote unquote, ‘have to wait.’ Well, I can only wait so long because I can’t control how long this child is going to stay inside of me and be born, and I’m also begging for someone to pay attention to me to manage this pain,” she said.
“I mean, I didn’t go into this experience thinking that it was going to be a walk in the park and that it was going to be painless.
“Was it going to be painless? No. Is it manageable pain? Yes. Do we live in a first-world country where the expectation is that if we have pain, and we’re asking to be looked after, and for it to be managed? Yes, that was the expectation.”
