“Hospital Policy means the principles, rules, and guidelines adopted by the Hospital, which may be amended, changed, or superseded from time to time.”

Julie and Meagan break down hospital policies today, especially common ones you’ll hear when it comes to VBAC. They chat all about VBAC agreement forms and policies surrounding continuous fetal monitoring, induction, and epidurals. 

Women of Strength, hospital policies are not law. They vary drastically from hospital to hospital. Some are evidence-based. Some are convenience-based. Do your research now to make sure you are not surprised by policies you are not comfortable with during labor!

Defining Hospital Policy

Birth Rights Article

Needed Website

How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents

Full Transcript under Episode Details 

Meagan: Welcome, everybody. We are going to be talking about policies today. What do they mean? Why are they created? And when do we have the right to say no or do we have the right to say no?

And I have Julie discussing this with me today. Hey. 

Julie: You know I’m a policy fighter. 

Meagan: Yes, we do. We do. The longer I have gone– in the beginning, I was not a policy fighter. I really wasn’t. I was a go-with-the-flow, sure, okay, let’s do it, you know best. That’s really how I was. 

Julie: A lot of people are. 

Meagan: That’s true. I think a lot of the time, it’s because we don’t know what our options are. We just don’t know, so I’m really excited to get into this with you today. 

I always love it because we kind of get into this spicy mood sometimes when we have topics like this that we are very passionate about. We are going to be talking about policies today. I do have a Review of the Week, and this is actually a very recent review which is so fun. We just posted on our social media for Google reviews. We were specifically looking for Google reviews and podcast reviews. 

These are so, so important for us but also for other people to find this platform. We want people to hear these stories. We want people to feel inspired and get educated and know their rights. Your reviews truly do matter, so if you have not yet, please, please, please do so. You can leave a review on your podcast platform, or you can go over to Google and just type in “The VBAC Link”, and then you can type in a review there. 

This reviewer is by Savannah, and she says, “I started listening to The VBAC Link Podcast around 16 weeks pregnant and continued throughout y pregnancy. It was so good and encouraging for me as a mama who was preparing for my VBAC. It helped me gain confidence, helped me know what to look for, and what to watch out for in my providers. Hearing others’ stories was so encouraging and helped me gain so much knowledge. I had my hospital VBAC unmedicated with my 8-pound, 15-ounce baby.” You guys, 8-pound, 15-ounce baby is a perfect-sized baby let me just say. 

“And I know that the knowledge I gained from this podcast played a huge role in being able to advocate for myself to get my birth outcome.” Huge congrats, Savannah, on your beautiful VBAC for your perfect-sized baby. I say that because you guys, let’s get rid of the “big baby” term. Let’s just title these babies as perfect-sized because an 8-pound, 15-ounce baby for some providers may be categorized as larger or maybe even macrosomic. 

it’s really important to know that your baby is the perfect size and your pelvis is amazing. You can do it just like our reviewer, Savannah. 

Julie: Your pelvis is amazing. 

Meagan: Seriously. All right, you cutie. Look at you. Did you just get a haircut, by the way?

Julie: I did, yesterday. It’s a little short. We did some color. It’s a little smidgey shorter, but then I think I wanted it to still go in a low ponytail for births. That was my goal. 

Meagan: I’m totally digging it. 

Julie: Thank you.

Meagan: I should be having fresh hair, but my cute hair lady bailed on me the morning of my hair appointment. 

Julie: Oh no! 

Meagan: Sometimes we have matching nails, but we would have had matching nails. We don’t have them today. 

You guys, we just miss each other. I miss you. 

Julie: Yeah. We need to go to lunch again. 

Meagan: We do. 

Yes. We love shopping, you guys. Let’s talk about hospital policies. 

Julie: Let’s do it. 

Meagan: We know that so many people go into– not even just birth, but really a lot of things in the medical world. They just go to a doctor’s office visit or go to a small procedure, or whatever it may be, and these places have policies. I want to talk about what it means. What does a hospital policy mean? What is the definition? 

The definition, according to lawinsider.com, says, “Hospital policy means the principals, rules, and guidelines adopted by a hospital which may be amended, changed, or superseded from time to time.” 

Julie: Oh, I love that addition. Amended, changed, or superseded. 

Meagan: Yep. 

Julie: Yeah. 

Meagan: Yeah. It can. 

Julie: And it does. 

Meagan: And it does. It does. 

Julie: It does. 

Meagan: You guys, let’s just start off right now with the fact of a hospital policy– or a policy, okay? A policy in general is not law. It is not law. If you decide to decline a hospital policy– 

Julie: It is well within your rights. 

Meagan: Well within your rights. 

You could get some kickback. You could probably expect it. 

Julie: You probably will. 

Meagan: But, that’s okay. That’s okay. My biggest advice is if you are receiving or being told that this is a hospital policy, and you disagree with the policy, or maybe you agree with the policy for someone else, but for you, it’s not working, and you say no, and they say, “Well, –”

Julie: “It’s hospital policy.” 

Meagan: “This policy is policy, and if you choose to break it, then you can sign an AMA.” 

Julie: You are so funny. “This policy is policy.” It’s like that though. 

Meagan: That’s literally what they say. 

Julie: They say, “It’s hospital policy.” And you say, “Well, I don’t agree with that policy.” “Well, it’s hospital policy.”

Meagan: “Well, it’s policy.” Okay. Well, I’m telling you I don’t like your stupid policy. 

Julie: I don’t like your stupid policy. We are spicy, huh? 

Meagan: I mean it, though. I think I maybe shared this a little bit, but I had a client who had a home birth planned. She decided to go to the hospital because she had preeclampsia, and this nurse was not giving her her baby. She kept saying, “It’s policy. It’s policy. It’s policy.” I was like, “This mom’s word trumps your policy.” As a doula, I was getting into some rocky, choppy waters I was feeling. I could just feel the tension building. It did not feel comfortable at all. 

I looked at my client. 

Julie: You’re just like, “Give her her doggone baby.” 

Meagan: They could kick me out. They could. I need you to know that they really could kick me out. She was like, “That’s okay. I want my baby.” So I pushed. I pushed. I pushed and I pushed. We did get her her baby, but we had to fight. We really, really, really had to fight, and it sucks. It really, really sucks. 

So there is a website called pregnancyjusticeus.org. We’re going to have this. I have not actually gone through all of it. It is– how many pages is this, Julie? It is a lot of pages. It is 65 pages, you guys. It’s 65 pages of birthright information, going through a lot. 

Julie: It will be linked in the show notes. 

Meagan: Yes, it sure will. If you want to go through this, I highly encourage it. It is from Birth Rights and Birth Rights Bar Association, the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Like I said, it’s 65 pages, but what they said in here I just think is so powerful. 

It says, “There is no point in pregnancy in which people lose their civil and human rights, and y