Physically injured and mentally traumatised, Australian women have been speaking up in what has become the ‘Me Too’ movement of birth.
Now, an ABC investigation has uncovered allegations of mothers undergoing procedures and being medicated without consent inside a Tasmanian hospital.
With each push, Georgia Lilley knows it won’t be long until she can cradle her newborn in her arms.
Overcome with another contraction, she’s suddenly surrounded by medical staff inside Tasmania’s second-largest hospital, Launceston General.
The doctor informs her they are moving on to an instrumental birth, and begins to describe a ventouse birth, also called vacuum, where a suction cup is placed on the baby’s head to help guide it out.
Georgia’s doctor says if it doesn’t work, they will place metal forceps around the baby’s head to assist with delivery.
“The thought of forceps terrified me, that was one thing that I thought was archaic,” she said.
“I knew I did not want that.”
Before Georgia can object, she says they start to attempt a ventouse birth without her consent.
Her screams fill the room as she begs the doctors to stop, but Georgia’s pleas go ignored.
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“I was screaming for it to stop; I was actually screaming ‘stop.’
“They ignored me, a whole room full of people, they just kept going.
“I was looking at my partner, he was crying, and I was saying ‘this is wrong.’
When the ventouse fails, they move onto forceps.
Georgia can feel her baby being “ripped” from her body.
“As she passed through me, I remember thinking, ‘that wasn’t so bad, she felt so small.’
“Like I knew I could have done it if they just left me alone, let me change positions, if they’d not sabotaged me from the moment I entered, I could have done it on my own.”
As her newborn is passed up to her for the first time, Georgia silently begs her daughter for forgiveness.
She feels like she has failed to keep her baby safe.
“The doctor was saying, ‘oh, have we had a boy or a girl? Congratulations.’
“I can’t even explain how dehumanising it felt…
“I felt like a dog, that they just didn’t care what was happening to me at all.”
In Australia, it is estimated that around one in three women experience birth trauma, which can be physical or psychological.
This is something Georgia experienced first-hand and has sought therapy to overcome.
Over the past several years, Georgia has thought about her childbirth experience every single day.
“I wrote in my head, about 1,000 letters to the head of obstetrics.”
“If I had them in front of me, how could I convince them that what happened was wrong and that it shouldn’t have happened.
“But I was too scared to actually do anything about it because I was scared that they would dismiss it, or that they would invalidate my experience.”
“I suppose the biggest impact is that I will never willingly give birth in a hospital again.”
The ABC has spoken with multiple mothers who said they felt “pressured” and “coerced” into medical interventions when giving birth at Launceston General Hospital (LGH).
The importance of consent
Gino Pecoraro, the president of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (NASOG), has spent time teaching junior obstetricians about the importance of consent.
He says that while he is unable to speak specifically about allegations made against the Launceston hospital, he can speak more generally.
“You can’t do something to someone without their consent, that’s called assault,” he said.
“There are legal protections for all consumers of healthcare, that they don’t have to do what we [health professionals] recommend,” Dr Pecoraro said.
“But by the same token, if you choose not to accept advice, then you do have to carry some responsibility for your decisions.”
Dr Pecoraro says an instrumental birth may be needed to ensure the health of both the mother and baby.
In life-threatening situations you might need to act to save someone’s life, he says, but if the patient can communicate, it is important to discuss what is being prescribed.
“But it’s up to every woman to decide what’s right for her and her baby when it comes to things like obstetric treatments, including induction of labour, or Caesarean section.”
“Ultimately, it’s always the woman’s choice.”
‘I felt like I’d been spiked’
First-time mum Holly Bennett also gave birth at Launceston General Hospital.
In the days after birth, she was worried her newborn wasn’t feeding properly.
It was a worry she says was dismissed by hospital staff.
“I ended up crying non-stop because I thought that there was something wrong and then I thought it was all in my head because they were ignoring me.”
“Being a first-time mum, I had no idea what was going on, I just knew that something wasn’t right.”
Once a midwife finally assessed a feeding, they discovered her baby hadn’t properly fed in almost three days, Holly said.
Holly told hospital staff she was upset that her baby had been left to starve because they had refused to listen to her concerns.
As a solution to her distress, Holly said she was offered an antidepressant medication, which she declined.
That’s why what happened next came as a shock.
One unsteady step at a time, Holly clings to the wall to keep herself upright.
Her palms press against the hard surface as she slowly makes her way to the bathroom.
Foggy-brained and confused, Holly tries to piece together what has happened.
“When I woke up, I felt like I’d been spiked.”
“I went to get up out of the bed and I had to hold on to everything to keep me upright,” she says.
“I had to hold on to the wall to walk to the bathrooms.
“And I had to actually use the bars, not because I was in pain to help myself up but because I couldn’t actually stand myself up properly.”
Holly’s mother was in the room watching her daughter’s out-of-character behaviour and asks what she has taken.
“I said, ‘Oh, they’ve given me a tablet when they gave me my needle, but I don’t know what they gave me.’
“[My mother] actually pressed the buzzer because she was a bit concerned.
“And they [hospital staff] came in and said, ‘Yeah, we gave her antidepressants because she was upset and crying.'”
The ABC has spoken with other mothers who claim they were also given medication without their consent in the maternity ward of the LGH.
Holly was “terrified.”
“I’m not sure if it was the fact that I could barely hold myself up, or the fact that I couldn’t hold my newborn.”
“But on top of that, I’d asked for something not to be given to me and it was essentially the same as being spiked out on a night out.
“And this was in a healthcare system where you’re meant to be looked after and you’re meant to have your concerns listened to.
“They’re just putting tablets into your system because it’s easier than dealing with things like, ‘Hey, she’s not being listened to and her child’s actually not well.’
“And that was terrifying, that it was easier to silence me by handing me antidepressants.”
In a statement, Tasmania’s health department said it was unable to comment on “circumstances involving individual patients due to patient confidentiality”.
Holly is now scared of having another baby.
“I went from wanting two children at least, to not wanting to ever go back there again.”
“They say that they advocate for mother’s choice … but at the end of the day, they only really care about what’s easy — and that’s terrifying.”
Never been safer to have a baby
Dr Pecoraro says while there are still some deaths, it has never been safer to have a baby.
“The mortality rates in Australia for both mothers and babies are amongst the best in the world, we’re very, very proud of that,” he said.
“This does come with treatments that we offer like caesarean sections, operative vaginal deliveries, forceps and vacuums, and induction of labour.”
On an average day in Australia, six babies are stillborn and two die within 28 days of birth, also known as neonatal death.
In 2021, there were around 6,000 babies born in Tasmania, of these there were 28 stillbirths and 22 neonatal deaths.
For Holly, the birth of her son left her with both mental and physical scars.
She was unable to have a natural birth and underwent an emergency C-section.
But when the dressing was removed, Holly’s husband noticed the scar was “really poorly sewn”.
“There was a flap of skin over the top, where they’d sewn the inside of a layer, instead of end to end.”
“And that meant that there was a massive skin flap that should have been sewn in straight and that was pulling every time I’d walk.
“I hate it, I absolutely hate looking at myself in the mirror because I’m disgusted in the fact that I have this horrible scar that’s not straight, it’s lumpy. It’s all types of sewn wrong.
“That’s ended up leaving me pretty traumatised, just because I now have that constant reminder that nothing went to plan with my labour.”
Holly said when she got home from the hospital, she received a generic email asking for feedback about her time at the LGH, so she responded.
“I made a written complaint, and they didn’t care, so not much else we can do.”
“I’ve never heard back … I got completely ignored.”
‘Me too’ birth movement
Alecia Staines from the Maternity Consumer Network says women are “forced into procedures all the time”.
The advocacy group has assisted a number of women lodging complaints to health regulatory organisations, along with providing referrals to human rights lawyers in cases involving obstetric violence.
“From vaginal exams, to being held down, to being cut without consent, which is called an episiotomy,” Ms Staines said.
“There’s a lot of gaslighting, coercion, and bullying going along as well, and that includes ‘If you don’t do this, your baby will die.'”
There have been inquiries into birth trauma right around the country, with some describing it as the “me too” movement for mothers.
A recent Parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma in New South Wales received more than 4,000 submissions, with many women claiming they were denied the opportunity to give informed consent.
Both Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory have also had inquiries looking into birth trauma, maternity services, and perinatal services.
The Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland have not had state or territory-wide inquiries into birth trauma and have no plans to do so.
Last year the Tasmanian government established a Women’s and Children’s Health inquiry to investigate maternal health services, birth trauma, and perinatal mental health services.
A submission to the inquiry from the Australasian Birth Trauma Association estimated around 770 Tasmanian women experience birth trauma each year, for which they may need surgery.
Ms Staines says it is time for women’s voices to be heard.
“The violence and disrespect that we see against women in society has actually infiltrated the birth suite.”
“So, we need some reaction from government for appropriate changes to support women, so we’re reducing the birth trauma because one-third of women should not be walking away from birth traumatised,” she said.
In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for Tasmania’s Department of Health said it was committed to providing “high-quality, safe and patient-centred care to women and babies across our health system”.
“Midwives, obstetricians and gynaecologists are highly trained and receive the appropriate education and training in all elements of maternity care as part of gaining their qualification.”
“We encourage anyone with concerns about their care to raise them with us, with all feedback taken very seriously and informing our continuous evaluation and improvement in the services we deliver across the state.”
Credits
Reporting/Digital production: April McLennan
Photography/Videography: Morgan Timms, Ellie Grounds, Kirra Grimes
Graphics: Magie Khameneh/Paul Yeomans
Digital editor: Daniel Miller