Thing #1,000,000 that skeezes me out

So I got an email from a unit I haven't had affiliation with in years, and this thing skeezed me to absolutely no end. It was about a "pregnancy meeting" for all pregnant wives within the battalion. OMG. Seriously? What could this possibly entail? Well, they outlined it. Basically, the OB department of the post hospital (can you hear my stomach turning now?) was coming to do a mass orientation and all that crap, to get the entire battalion done at once. Holy. Shit. It makes my skin crawl. Just when I thought there were no other ways they could possibly come up with to treat women like cattle, they found ANOTHER.

Let me just tell you about what it's like to give birth at a military hospital. Thankfully, I never have had, and never will have, that experience myself, but I know probably over 100 people who have, so I've got a relatively decent handle on what goes on. Basically, you have a baby, 50% shot that's by c-section if you're where we used to be (the place that sent the email) and of those, 50% shot you'll develop an awful infection because apparently that hospital sanitizes its surgical instruments in the lagoon of the sewage plant. Anyhow, once you're stabilized enough that you can assume zombie status, you are shuttled from class to class, and briefed (yeah, briefed) on all things baby. Nope, they wouldn't send people to come talk to you individually, and tailor the approach at all according to your needs (for example, the mom of 7 probably doesn't need a basic baby care class, and the one who is tandem nursing the 2-year-old and the newborn probably doesn't need a spiel on the benefits of breastfeeding). You're just going to be herded from class to class with however many others are in the ward at that time. (I about convulse every time someone talks about this. Can you imagine having to be with a bunch of complete strangers right after you give birth, probably very traumatically?? It's like maternity jail!!) Plus, a lot of times, you have to share a room with someone else. That REALLY grosses me out.

So yeah, good old Army hospital found a way to treat people even more like cattle than they already do. They already do mass appointments a lot of times. Many times, you will not even have the option to be alone during labor (I LOVE being alone during labor. I can't have other people distracting me or it doesn't work.) Sometimes you'll even have a roommate while you deliver, and often will be tended by a doctor you have never met. Then if you survive that, you'll be shuttled to class after class, en masse with whoever's there, separated from your baby most of the time (hello, breastfeeding difficulties, "accidental" circumcisions, and all kinds of other bullshit that should never be an issue.) and now, now they've taken it one step further! Now they want to start cattle treatment from day one. Outstanding.

This is why I went to one appointment there, and RAN. FOR. THE. HILLS. The place gave me the creeps big time, and frankly, the more I hear about military hospital birth, the more disgusted I get. People who go to military hospitals for their care obviously have internalized the logic, "I am nobody special and neither is my baby. I get what I get, and I don't get upset." I'm sorry, but I deserve better, and so do my kids. I don't give a shit that it costs nothing to deliver there. I'd rather give birth in a field and have Thak catch than to take even one bit of what they're dishing out there. Better yet, I'd rather live slim in order to be able to afford to pay a licensed midwife to manage my care in a non-hospital setting. I guess I'm just too used to being treated like an individual human being, with my own attributes, strengths, and shortcomings. Because of this, I'm a little offended that some entity that I have affiliation with for now (the Army) expects that I would be ok to be herded like livestock during one of the most sacred times in the entirety of any person's existence. Uncle Sam, you're killing me here. More so, why haven't other wives stood up and railed against this type of thing? You bet if I couldn't afford to take my business elsewhere, and had to give birth in that butcher shop (er, Army hospital?), I would not have put up with their shit. Why do thousands of wives accept this garbage? Are American women at large, military wives in specific, really that duped?