Ten years after leaving the Org. I gave birth to my first child. It was a difficult birth and immediately after (in the shower) I lost a lot of blood. I had already signed a non consent form to a blood transfusion.
I was told that due to the amount of loss I should consider a transfusion. The Nurses were very pushy but that is their job- to encourage the patient to do what they believe, is in the patients own best interest. Amongst other comments they said that as a new mother I would be better able to look after my newborn with a transfusion. I refused and felt like I was being treated with disgust.
I was exhausted and on waking I found a bag of clear fluid flowing into my arm. I didn't have the energy to find the buzzer to call the nurse but managed to stay awake waiting for one to come into my room. I was alarmed, thinking it was a blood product. I mustered the energy to ask her what it was and whether it was a blood by product. She nastily told me it wasn't. If it had been, I was going to ask her to remove it. On her reassurance I immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Sometime later I was given 4 iron tablets to take and told that the Doctor didn't want to give me a painful injection so I would need to take these four times a day. I questioned the amount and was told smartly that 'it's what the Doctor ordered'. Before the second round of 4 tablets a few hours later I asked a more approachable nurse who acknowledged that it seemed like a lot and checked with the Doctor. He advised that the dosage was 1 tablet four times a day, not 4 tablets four times a day (16 tablets every 24 hours).
It was not a pleasant experience and after 7 days I asked to be discharged. They did not want to do so and after pleading with them and telling them that my stay in hospital was difficult and I was sure I would recover better at home they agreed to let me go.
It was difficult at home as I was very weak. I didn't know that I was developing Mastitis (which was making me even weaker) and fortunately a Child Care Nurse noticed it during a check up a few weeks after giving birth, she told me it was so bad I may need an operation.
Overall it took a few months to feel 100% and I could have prevented the trauma I faced in those months if I had accepted the transfusion. Also the joy, fun and elation of having my first child would have been felt by me so much more but that's probably just being selfish :( Even breast feeding was a problem.
Now this isn't anywhere near as traumatic as many others have had to face and it wasn't life threatening (but could have been if I had not taken advantage of the health care provided afterwards). However, it did make life difficult for me and unfortunately I wasn't able to do my best for my newborn.
I had told my non JW mum what had occurred who later told me what my JW father had said. There was no sympathy from him, rather disgust. He said I had accepted a plasma transfusion. I don't know what upset me more at the time, the lack of sympathy or the false claim.
Thanks to guys like you, who examine what the Bible principles are, share them and allow discussions, I would now accept a blood transfusion when it is necessary. When I say necessary I don't just mean when it is a life or death situation but when it is in the best interest of the individual concerned and their own particular circumstances.
Certainly there are a number of things that must be weighed up in deciding whether a transfussion is appropriate but that is the case with any medical treatment we receive (even with what may appear to be simple things such as accepting 4 iron tablets, 4 times a day, lol.)
I was glad that I could rely on my never a JW husband would authorise a transfusion, if necessary, for our children but to be honest, even when I still felt it was not okay, I would have permitted my children having one. After all, my reasoning would have been that it wasn't them that would be doing anything wrong, but the guilt would be all mine.
