Woman forced into court hearing during labour for refusing C-section had powerful message
Going through labour is thankfully something I'll never have to experience but it's widely acknowledged that we should be making the mother as comfortable as possible.
Whether that's extra pillows, a birthing pool (shout out Peep Show) or even just some post-labour food that the mother has been craving but unable to eat for the past nine months, you'd hope that it's a general consensus to make the experience calm and stress-free.
However, when mother-of-three Cherise Doyley was in active labour with her fourth child back in September 2024, she was forced onto a zoom call with the hospital's legal team, after a disagreement regarding a potential C-section.
Doyley was understandably not keen on having a C-section, due to the recovery time and health complications that stem from it, but the hospital were suggesting that it was the best thing for the baby.
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After 12 hours of labour and one very awkward zoom call, Doyley alleges that the C-section was eventually forcibly performed on her, something she described as 'akin to torture'.
Despite being in the midst of a long and painful labour, the mother delivered a powerful message about having control over her own body.
“I still have rights as an American citizen and as a patient that I am allowed to decide what goes on with me and my body and my baby,” she said in a clip of her testimony.
“If it's between them choosing whether I have to live or the baby has to live, I did tell them that I want to live," she continued. "I have other children out here in the world that need me. And that is my right because at the end of the day, if I die from a C-section, nobody on this call is going to take care of my children."
Having already given birth three times, Doyley was experienced in the matter and was determined to try for a natural birth, especially as she had three other kids to also look after at home.
But doctors expressed concerns about the risk of uterine rupture, a life-threatening emergency where the uterine wall tears open and causes severe abdominal pain, vaginal bleeding, and foetal distress.
Although it happens in only one in 300 cases of natural birth, the doctors weren't budging and bafflingly, the expecting mother was brought a tablet, where she joined a Zoom court hearing with a judge, doctors, lawyers and others.
After a near three hour call, the judge said that the hospital could only perform a c-section in the event of an emergency and doctors argued that was the case when the baby's heartbreak dropped overnight.
“When we use the courts to basically strong-arm, bully someone into an unnecessary medical procedure against their will, it's akin to torture, in my eyes. When we use the courts to basically strong-arm, bully someone into an unnecessary medical procedure against their will, it's akin to torture, in my eyes,” she said.
Doyley was eventually able to give birth to her daughter Arewa, who is now one, but her shocking situation raises serious concern about a hospital's right to overrule mentally competent patients when there is a baby involved.
Topics: Health
James Moorhouse