When I last spoke with the head midwife at the Cambridge Birth Center, I was told that I would have been informed of their policy regarding mental health history as a risk factor in writing in my orientation packet, which I would have been given at the orientation approximately one month before my due date.
Conveniently, I’d been given a copy of the orientation packet by the ever-helpful midwife Susan M. So today I sat down and read over it carefully to see where it informs me of their policy risking out any woman who has ever been treated for any mental health issue in any way and has not produced a letter from a mental health professional stating she is “of sound mind to birth outside the hospital.”
It doesn’t, of course, have any such policy. There’s not even a vague policy which could be construed to mean that. I have no idea what Ms. Harris was talking about.
Reading over the consent forms gave me this other gem, however, which apparently most patients see for the first time when they are between 35 and 37 weeks pregnant and unable to transfer care if they don’t like it:
“I understand that The Cambridge Birth Center is an innovative project of the Cambridge Public Health Commission. Whether or not I complete the program, I consent that they have full access to all my medical records for statistical studies and other research purposes. The only reservation is that my personal privacy be protected from the general public.
I hereby authorize The Cambridge Birth Center to preserve for scientific or teaching purposes or otherwise dispose of any tissue or fluid specimen that may result in the usual course my pregnancy [sic] (i.e. blood samples, placenta).”
This is part of the form titled Consent To Deliver In The Cambridge Birth Center, it’s a general form that every patient must sign if they wish to give birth there. In other words, patients are informed at term that one of the conditions of birthing at the center is that they must agree to be research subjects.
As M put it when I read it aloud to him, “That’s so wrong it’s illegal. Even the government thinks that is wrong.”
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