How to Get a CPS File in One Easy Step
CPS (Child Protective Services) - you know, the people who investigate abuse and remove children from crack houses and other ugly horrible situations. M. and I found out that it's actually quite easy to get on their radar here in WA State.
Refuse the antibiotic eye ointment for your baby.
During our appointment with Dr. G. on Friday I asked her about refusing the antibiotic eye ointment. After all, I don't have gonorrhea or chlamydia, my sexual history is quite vanilla, so why should our boy have to suffer through blurry vision unless it's necessary?
No problem, Dr. G. replied, but just so you know, refusing will cause the state to open up a file on you with CPS, which isn't a big deal...except...except...
...if you are trying to do an adoption.
WTF????
What are we going to do? Well, we're going to do the ointment because we're lesbian parents and already feel the scrutiny of society breathing down our necks, AND when M. births our second child, I'll adopt him/her and having a CPS record might be a little bit of a problem.
Thanks WA State.
posted by Sacha @ 10:43 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
wow, who knew it was so easy? ::roll eyes:: ack-i'm sorry. what bullshit. i was worried about resisting the eye ointment for quinn, and was told i'd have to sign some paperwork if i refused it, blah, blah blah.
when it came down to it, though, maybe it was the individual nurse i was dealing with--who knows? but it wasn't the crisis it was made out to be, and there was no paperwork, etc. i just said i didn't want her to have it. i may have been explained the 'risks,' (i can't completely remember) but the issue was dropped.
i hope a similar thing happens for you all.
i think some people thought it was a silly thing to make such a fuss over, but i feel strongly that's it part of the larger don't-ask-any-questions-the-med-staff-know-best-always medicalization thing.
i just cannot stand that folks are treated like outcasts, at best, and like criminals, at worst, when you dare question medical authorities, esp. ob/gyn ones.
hands down, that takes the cake. what complete BULLSHIT!
never mind, that CPS is already heartbreakingly inundated...hell, why don't we just add another case onto their already breaking backs?!
it's like a figurative "gun" being put to your temple. you & m. are literally being forced into making a decision you didn't want to...a decision, I might add, that was made in thoughtful consideration of LB’s WELL-BEING.
hell, I don’t know about you, but i am running off to the phone. you two are monsters and should be jailed. note sarcasm
Washing state…& their fucking inane “regulations”.
bleeding bastards
WHAT?!? Are you absolutely sure your care provider is right about this? There are "myths" about that happening here, but the nurses I've talked to said it never happens, and isn't true. I mean don't get me wrong, if that's how it really is shit I'd just do the damn ointment too. But I just have a hard time believing that it truly is reality. Esp. in a place like where you live! I would talk to your doula and/or L&D nurses on the unit and ask them their experience, personally.
WOW!!!!! Talk about a police state. We don't even do that ointment or eye drops or whatever in Australia! Imagine what they'd think of me then, refusing the hep B vaccine at birth and refusing vitamin K injection and wanting the oral dose instead? I'm already a bit "naughty" because of that. I find it remarkable that your system that is so freaking overloaded with abuse cases already would waste it's time on something so minor as a parents right to refuse unneccesary treatment. How utterly disgusting.
Oh my goodness - that's just incredible/terrible.
I don't think that we have the ointment in the UK either; it certainly hasn't been mentioned at any of our antenatal classes, where they covered pretty much all the kind of things you had a right to refuse, and the reasons why.
That's just insane!
We went with the drops after all. Because they also protect against other bacteria and my water had been broken over 24 hours. Just figured it was better to be safe than sorry. The midwife had tested it in her eyes and said it doesn't sting and isn't so bad.
Oh good grief! Kudos to the person who told you about it before hand. Imagine the frustration of finding out after the fact!
Thanks for telling us about it, that's one more thing we'll look into before Griffin arrives!
Good decision to pick your battles carefully. Eyes on the prize, girls!
Yup, we vaxed on schedule for the same reason -- not the CPS file per se, but the fact that if Natalie had been behind schedule on vaxes it might have made us look bad for the 2nd parent adoption. It was really irritating to have the decision forced upon us simply because we don't have legal recognition of our relationship. (As for the eye ointment, we had a home birth so that was easily avoided. But the principle is the same.)
Post a Comment
<< Home