How to Deal with Child Protection and Retaliatory Medical Negligence for the Freebirthing Woman

published 13 November 2021

**This is a guest post submitted by an anonymous Australian freebirther. I am very grateful for the time this woman has take to research and put together this guide to help other freebirthers**

Lately we have been made aware of women being reported to child protection for their choices. Most of the time nothing comes of it. Sometimes they do minor visits, but occasionally they can get abusive and waste your time with threats and illegal temporary child kidnap.

[Anonymous] I’m going to write how to deal with this based on experience and anecdotes and what to do when faced with hospital negligence with postpartum care. Please note this doesn’t take the place of legal advice and legal advice should always be sought first.

(This is also based on the Australian law, so if you’re reading this and you’re from another country, much of this may not apply to you, as we don’t have a guide for you yet, so seek appropriate legal advice for your country and state) 

Women they target:  

As we know Freebirth is a completely legal choice in Australia. However it really is Russian roulette depending on what you do once the baby is born and how you are treated should you end up in hospital. A good portion of freebirthing women do know how to play the system and claim the baby came too quickly which usually saves them from medical neglect, CPS involvement, and poor treatment by maternity staff.

Other women claim they switch providers to get lost in the system, and they freebirth without issue.

A few women are either honest with their choices and are either left alone by the hospital or have paramedics/police/child services called on them. South Australia would be the worst state where this occurs. The Northern Territory is especially vicious to Indigenous women as well. 

Based on the experiences of many women, they often target women who are low income, women of colour, single, LGBT, off grid, and women who are gentle/anxious/soft in personality who don’t know how to advocate for themselves. They also like to play on fears. The way women are treated also depends on where they give birth and what antenatal care was accessed. Women who had no antenatal care and birth far from hospital or off grid and have some sort of emergency will potentially be treated far worse than a city woman who engaged with the system during the antenatal period. 

Most of the time social services are not an issue and just check that the baby in question will be receiving medical care. I am going to focus here on more severe cases so you know what to do.

What to do during maternity retaliation ‘’healthcare”:

Now I want to make it abundantly clear, the hospital has no authority to remove a child and only DHHS can. 

In these cases where there are threats of removal and separation I highly recommend recording secretly so you can document it later. Get legal advice later if things go to court level if the recording will be admissible. Also write down, much better to use your phone to email or text it to yourself for accurate timing and records. For example, if you are only documenting to write in your phone say “at x amount of hours, Doctor Smith came in and said such and such.” Document any snide comments, refusal of care, lack of care, and not giving informed consent. 

It is very common for the hospital to try and attempt to separate mother and baby in an attempt to put the baby in NICU and run tests, most of them unnecessary and for forced weaning. It will be done under the guise of child safety but it's really an attempt at systematic abuse to punish the woman for not allowing herself to be controlled by the system.  Assertively and politely decline and insist any sort of weighing and checking can be done with baby in maternity with you. Stress your right and importance to breastfeed. If you had previous antenatal care this will be easier to do. If not this will be harder and you may have to send baby off unless you can get a lawyer right away. This is just so they can’t accuse you of medical negligence. Insist on being able to breastfeed or pump and that it's documented the baby was given feeds from your milk. 

In the event baby has to go to the NICU, ask them what kind of tests they want to do. If they get rude, you do need to be strong and assertively (but not rudely), ask the health professional to watch their tone, not speak to you that way, and to get their supervisor as you would like some informed consent and this hospital worker is not giving it. The response by medical staff can vary. In my experience it often does work because very few people stand up to them or assert themselves and it takes them aback. Another way to test them is to ask them to put it in writing or provide some written evidence or guidelines they follow from RANZCOG or the AMA and hospital policies for you to read over for whatever treatment they wish to do for bub. An example during the pandemic a man with appendicitis was refused life saving treatment in hospital for refusing a Covid Test, which is illegal. The doctor told him he was free to go home. He told them to put it in writing as to why they were refusing care. The doctor of course was smart to recant on that because if the man died, the doctor would be faced with the tort of negligence lawsuit of the century and lose his licence. Sometimes you can call their bluff but its situational. 

Please make sure you are recording/documenting everything again. Often when these issues turn severe, many women have experienced aggressive hospital staff and social workers and outright abuse. Frequently hospitals try to tell white lies to social services that the baby is injured or denied medical treatment by the parent. Make sure you take pictures of baby after birth and whenever you can so they have no evidence to accuse you of causing neglect or injury. Also make it clear verbally you are not denying treatment and are more than happy to treat baby if they give informed consent and explain why they wish to do a procedure or any medical procedure. It is also important women educate themselves before birth on what is usually given to babies in NICU (antibiotics, glucose). 

Other women they like to target are women who are anti vaccination. One of the best excuses to use is to say you will follow up with your trusted family GP. If they push you can claim there is a history of anaphylaxis in the family and so wish to discuss this with a family GP who knows your family history.

In cases of Medical Kidnap:

Be aware if they are attempting to engage in full blown child kidnap, they often go about this illegally before the paperwork is served, given by DHHS. They will attempt to get you alone without your partner or trick your partner into leaving. Be very aware of this. Please note down the name of any rude or abusive maternity staff whether they are nurses, midwives, doctors. You will need their names for a report to AHPRA. You can often use their name to look up their registration number yourself on the AHPRA website.

Now the next set of advice comes with risks and may backfire so do obtain legal advice and do this warily if you don’t have access to a lawyer. In my experience it has worked. If you are brave enough, whip out your phone, go on Facebook Live and record and say exactly what they are doing that your child is being taken because you had a birth at home, is completely healthy and they are trying to punish you for a legal choice. Then if you have to give the child up, do so peacefully and claim you are doing it so your child isn’t traumatised and you aren’t physically attacked. Often they scatter pretty quick or will take the baby but will tread carefully. It's best this recording is done live so it's stuck on a social media platform in case your phone is confiscated and ‘gets lost.’ Keep your voice calm and steady in the video so they can't accuse you of being hysterical. Sometimes it can be a no win situation as being calm can earn criticism as well, but being clear and level headed works best. I do not recommend shouting or yelling at maternity staff. The goal is to make them look irrational and unethical in the eyes of the Judge and public, not you. Of course afterwards seek a lawyer immediately. 

When dealing with negligent postpartum care: 

If you are facing abuse and medical negligence by being denied treatment as a mother, again social media can be your friend. Record on Facebook Live into birthing groups about your treatment. Word gets around pretty quick, birth activist groups will have other women call the hospitals with complaints about your treatment. A woman in the UK did this. Was Covid positive with gestational diabetes and was being denied treatment and left to languish in a room until she ranted on what was happening to all the birth groups on camera. Suffice to say, they gave her what she wanted pretty quickly. 

In regards to poor maternity treatment, you’ll eventually get it if you're being assertive. For example if they have delayed treatment for PPH when you need an iron infusion and a blood transfusion then get legal advice for one. There are many national hotlines and advocacy groups to call. The number one to go to would be Maternity Choices Australia or the Maternity Consumer Network. Its imperative this is done immediately.

Now when addressing staff for your ill treatment, say you are very unwell and feel like you are being denied treatment. Ask to speak to the head midwife about the staff neglecting you, not giving you informed consent and you may need to seek out patient advocacy service for obstetric violence.

The key here is to always use certain words in these situations with medical staff. Words like informed consent/refusal, medical coercion, medical abuse, obstetric violence, negligence. The right terminology can usually get the ball rolling because these are often legal jargon and accusatory and the right words to use to point out abusive care. They don’t like it, but it puts them on edge. Please know to keep escalating higher and higher until you get to the clinical director if you need  to call outside bodies like a medical ombudsman. Usually it won’t get to that point. But sadly the reason why a lot of women freebirthing or not suffer terrible postpartum care is due to threats and being scared and not escalating negligence. I will say I am very sure though when you do make noise they will escalate because people don’t do it often and it does shock them a little. 

Another thing for the freebirthing woman to be aware of who has transferred for a medical emergency is they will try to get you when you are weak and sick. It is very hard to advocate for yourself postpartum, exhausted and suffering some medical condition. Wild pregnancy and free birthing is a journey and while legally birth is sovereign and a woman may birth to the point of death, most women will obviously seek emergency care. It is imperative depending on the situation or any niche you fit in the targeted groups I mentioned, to very much educate yourself and have back up plans whether it be having tinctures or herbs to manage PPH at home, neonatal resuscitation training, or lies to tell the hospital about the baby coming too quick in order to protect yourself. 

Warnings for your support person/male partner:

One more angle I need to mention to be aware of. While it's great if you have a supportive partner who is willing to advocate for you, it's best to tread about this carefully, especially if your partner is male. Best for your partner to take care of the legal side of things via calling lawyers, gathering documents and paperwork etc. While he could advocate for you, many women have recounted experiences where hospital staff became histrionic and falsely accused the male partner of aggression against staff or domestic violence against the birthing woman in order to use excuses for child kidnap. Please make sure your birthing partner particularly if male is aware of this. Hospitals can be especially vicious to Aboriginal men and accuse them of violence and have security or police called on them for false accusations. We all know how police treat Aboriginal men and its best to avoid this situation. 

Forms:

Do not sign anything without legal advice and if they try to insist, say you will get legal advice before you sign any sort of contract. This is especially true for DHHS forms about child removal and agreeing to parenting classes and CPS visits.  In some cases the abuse by the hospital was so bad, women have tried to leave AMA. I strongly recommend against this or be very careful as the hospital will then try to accuse the mother of child abandonment. If you must leave, on the AMA form write, “ I am forced to leave due to medical negligence and abuse. This is not my choice, but in order to save my own life I need to seek treatment at a different hospital.” 

Sign, and take a picture so it's on records. Yes I have seen them forge signatures.  Ask for a copy and insist on a copy if the hospital staff stamp their little feet. If they refuse, take the AMA form with you and say you will email them a copy or you can leave it and keep your picture and walk out. Do actually try and seek treatment elsewhere from a GP or hospital to prove your case.  I do not recommend this route as you will have to jump through hoops to see the baby again if you leave without it. 

In a rare circumstance if they try to bar you from leaving you will probably have to phone the police. I would also make sure you file a police report as this can be used in future if you ever want to pursue a tort of trespass against the hospital. The AMA form also can be used as evidence in contract law for signing an AMA under duress because your life was at risk (do seek legal advice about this angle).

Filming:

Most states have laws about filming without consent. However no woman or man to date has been punished for filming abuse or negligence at a hospital. Most of the times these laws are used against domestic abusers, mostly men who film their partners in the house to keep control over them or perverted landlords spying on their tenants. Best to record or film in secret and get legal advice later. 

Women with alternative lifestyles:

Some women who freebirth prefer to live in nature on homesteads or in tents. If you do not have a fixed address, this is an automatic red flag for social services to be involved and take your baby as it's considered homelessness and this is why they took that ‘gum nut baby’ in Byron Bay. So make sure you give a fixed address to the hospital whether it’s a friend or family member’s. If you are unlucky to be forced to have social service visits,  have a cot and baby stuff and chill at the residence for social service visits if you can. If you have an emergency in childbirth and the ambulance has picked you up from your alternative living residence, claim you were travelling and went into labour, or you wanted to give birth in nature as is your right. The latter excuse may cause a few issues but not to the level of child removal. 

Wild Pregnancy:

A woman is not obligated to have antenatal care for her fetus and many freebirthing women choose to have a ‘wild pregnancy,’ free from antenatal care. This is your right, but if you want to protect yourself from the system, it is sometimes best to have a paper trail of antenatal care to save yourself a headache should an emergency arise in childbirth as the hospital and social services can get very nasty about women who have no care in pregnancy.

Basically, to sum up. Document everything. Firmly but not aggressively, stand your ground. Seek legal advice. Keep baby and a support person with you at all possible times. Call someone, including the police, if you need to.

If you have any helpful advice to add, or suggested law contacts, please get in touch with me.
Thank you again to my anonymous article writer!
If you have a topic that you are well versed in and could help other women, please send me an email and we may be able to publish it! 

Some helpful links to contact for advice or report via:

Complaints to/about AHPRA: https://www.ahpra.gov.au/About-Ahpra/Complaints.aspx 

Patient’s rights in hospital: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ServicesAndSupport/patient-and-carer-rights-in-hospital 

If you’re not getting care contact: https://www.maternitychoices.org/ 

Also contact: https://www.maternityconsumernetwork.org.au/ 

Child Protection laws: https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/child-protection 

Contact Bashi for law advice. You can hear her talking about birth law in brief on this podcast. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6JC4xGJO3BE7Ax41oRa9Q5?si=d103b665070d4080 

Azure is familiar with birth rights, especially in QLD. Listen to her on this podcast. You can contact her on Facebook. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6YlplojNYhL3jADnRxTnl1?si=ec48dbb5e85d43f8 

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USA - https://www.fightchildprotectiveservices.com/how-to-fight-child-protective-services