My daughter was born with some serious issues landing her in the NICU for nearly a week two or three days after she was born. Soon after, I was pulled into a small room with a social worker, several healthcare providers (nurses and doctors) and a police officer. I was peppered with questions about what drugs my then-wife had been taking during her pregnancy. I was honestly aghast; this was a woman who spent both pregnancies puking into garbage bags she carried with her everywhere because she refused to take the anti-nausea medication she was prescribed to keep things down and other than the epidural, she refused to take even OTC painkillers or drinking caffeine of any sort (decaf or not) during her pregnancy for fear of repercussions to the babies down the line. This was on top of her STRONG aversion to even cannabis and only occasional wine drinking in what most would consider only a slight step above teetotaling.

While I can completely and utterly understand the medical profession's careful monitoring of a situation, particularly when it comes to negative birthing outcomes in the US, the first response should not be the vilification of parents until they are 1099% sure they have evidence that supports such action.

But, then again, when we had our first kiddo and she received an incorrectly inserted epidural there wasn't even a single apology from anyone, let alone the anesthesiologist who let the epidural leak into her skin, eventually puffing up the skin to a noticeable bubble, rather than where it was supposed to be, leaving her in excruciating pain to the point where I had to scream at the nurse's station for 45 straight minutes until someone would listen instead of just telling me she was fine and we were overreacting. Or the doctor who was stitching her up afterward, lacking any and all bedside manner, by saying he should have taken a before and after photo of her vagina, in front of me and my wife, because he had done such a great job.

When it came to our stay in the NICU: we were asleep in a room on another floor, our first in 40+ hours, they performed surgery on our daughter w/o asking our permission or informing us first because they attempted to call the room we were in but we didn't answer--only later to find out that the room's phone had been removed and wasn't there. No one thought to come to the room or even call the nurses' station literally next to the room to have them ask/inform us of the surgery first.

But, sure, go ahead and add on immense stress in one of the most stressful situations of our lives through false accusations while protecting your doctors to the nth degree.