Kate Davidson was my "Certified Nurse Midwife" for the pregnancy and birth of my daughter from February through November 9, 2004. She is such an all natural nut case that even the local hospital would not let her delivery there, so we delivered in Silverton, Oregon.

I went in to deliver my baby on the afternoon of November 9th, when my labor stopped, Kate decided to break my water to keep it moving, which I agreed to. The labor continued and I continued with no pain medication (my choice). When I hit 10 cm and it was time for me to push, I got out of the hot tub and made my way to the bed. On my back, they placed the heart monitors on me and the baby's head. at 11:00 pm I proceeded to push one time... she asked me to turn to my side, pushed again, turned to my other side, pushed again, "face the back of the bed" "push", alright, back onto your back, "push again" same scenario for half an hour.

What she didn't inform me of was that every time I pushed, my baby's heart rate would plummet because the chord was around her neck. I could NOT push her out...so when I turned around from facing behind, the room was full of Drs, nurses and teary family members.

At that point, they should have wheeled me into the OR for an emergency c-section, but instead (b/c my midwife is all natural and didn't want to ruin her natural delivery record) the Dr. applied the suction to my daughter's head and pulled...she didn't budge. Next, he applied the forceps to her head and face and in one push, pulled her out of me...resulting in an explosion of everything down below...I had no time to stretch. She was born at 11:33 pm.

Immediately after delivery, the Dr. repaired my 4th degree epesiotomy (which FYI was completely through my sphincter muscle). By about 1 AM, all was quiet... until I began to hemorrhage blood through my rectum. The nurse came in repeatedly overnight to changed my bed pads, CNM Davidson also came in several times to remove clots and check me, and by 2 pm that following afternoon, and the third time the dr. checked me, he realized that maybe something really was wrong?? By then, my blood count was way down to 2-3, which is low enough to need a transfusion.

The Dr. took me back to the OR and re-repaired my 4th degree epesiotomy. They also gave me antibiotics for an infection.

The hemorrhaging stopped, my midwife was shocked they didn't give me a transfusion and sent me home from the hospital a day late on liquid iron to boost my supply.

I took home my beautiful baby girl on November 12th. Those 2 weeks at home were very very hard with very little blood and energy which caused very little milk supply, the antibiotics caused a yeast infection in my breasts which resulted in terrible pain for me and oral thrush in my baby's mouth, having to be constantly supervised so I didn't pass out from low blood pressure...and then I realized the unimaginable. When I would pass gas, it would come out my vagina! That could only mean one thing, there is a connection somewhere right?

At my 2 week post par tum visit to CNM Davidson, I told her of my symptoms, and she checked the repair...found nothing wrong with it and sent me on my way. 3 weeks, and 6 weeks out same result. She had some other dDrs check me too, but they couldn't find a hole, so I guess that meant there wasn't one there. They didn't tell me to watch for signs, they didn't even tell me there was a name for what was there or what might develop (even though apparently she had written it in my file).

For the entire first year of my daughter's life, I was very uncomfortable in my rectal/vaginal area, not able to sit on the floor and play with my daughter, have sex comfortably, let alone use the restroom without extreme pain.

At my annual check-up, I went in to see a new Dr. who found the infection and finally diagnosed me with what was called a Recto-Vaginal Fistula. In the past year and a half I've had 6 surgeries to repair what happened to me back in November 2004 including a complete overlap repair of my sphincter muscle, no thanks to CNM Kate Davidson of Salem's Women's Clinic in Salem, Oregon.

If any of this sound familiar to you, if you've gone through this before, even if it's not with the same business, feel free to email me with questions/concerns/advice. I really want to get the word out that this is a growing problem that is not well diagnosed b/s it's partly your midwives fault and they don't want to diagnose and get in trouble so they would rather let you suffer.

Salem Women's Clinic
Salem, Oregon
Kate Davidson, CNM
Medical Negligence