Does anyone know what it takes to have a baby in this country?

[cynatnite]

Doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists (if the mom chooses an epi), lab techs, ward clerks, medical records clerks, and plenty more. That's not to mention getting the charges through an insurance company. They will require records to back up the charges and in some cases, pre-approval might be needed as well.

Oh, and let's not forget the Down Syndrome. The family knew this was coming because of a procedure called amniocentesis. That is another procedure which would have required an enormous amount of effort to coverup. More lab techs, specialized physician for that specific test, records, appointments and so on. Sarah Palin was an older mother and at her age it is recommended that this procedure is done. There is a high risk of Down Syndrome for the infant for mothers over 40.

Sarah Palin probably does lie about everything...

But given what would be involved to fabricate a pregnancy....sorry, it won't happen...it couldn't happen. I spent enough years in the medical field that I can tell you for a fact that it couldn't happen. There are enough people involved that it would be next to impossible to keep it quiet. I don't know anyone in the medical field who would go along with a fraud like this given the complex health issues involved in the infant alone. It is as unethical and criminal as it gets. We're talking a good number of people who would be willing to risk everything trying to fabricate a high-risk pregnancy.

Now, if you were watching a soap opera or badly written movie...then yeah...it could happen. I'm sure Lifetime movie channel has a few of these movies in their vault.

on edit: Let us not forget that it is unethical and criminal to lie on medical records. They are legal documents.

[slackmaster]

1. That and a pair of testicles

Do you mind if I do a "J"?

[Webster Green]

2. I posted this in the other thread as well.

You do not need any of those things to have a baby. I've seen it done with none of those things.

[cynatnite]

4. I've seen them born in between beds...

stories of taxies and all that.

This was a high risk pregnancy and there was also an amniocentesis done. That was how they knew ahead of time.

To fabricate that and the rest of the pregnancy would still take an enormous number of people to go along with it.

Believing she faked it is as stupid and silly as it is to believe that Obama wasn't born in the US. Both would require enormous leaps of thinking to believe it.

Go for it. I'll laugh.

[vanlassie]

3. I paid a midwife $350.00 for my last birth.

[Maine-ah]

6. 4 years ago...

my daughter was $26,000.00. At the hospital. Midwife, then a doctor. Ended up with a c-section after 24 hours of labor.

[JDPriestly]

25. Had my two in Europe -- very complicated -- and I will never know

what it cost because the burden of paying was shared. And my children have worked hard to have really useful lives. Mankind got its money's worth and I am grateful to the European health care system for my children's health and well being. I don't think that either I or they would have fared as well in American hospitals as I did in European ones.

We are crazy to continue this for-profit health care insurance system.

As for Sarah Palin -- I think that Trigg is her baby. But we should demand that she show his birth certificate if she runs for president. We should be sure we know the whole truth about the baby.

[handmade34]

8. I bartered for all of mine...

no money, no hospital, no technology, no worries...

[JDPriestly]

26. How many chickens did you barter, handmade 34?

[handmade34]

27. ...

:rofl:

no chickens lost their lives in the interactions

[shanti]

13. really?

when was that? i had two home births in the early 80's and it cost me at $1000 each, and i had a CNM. the cost included the office visits.

[dkf]

5. You never saw discovery health where these women have horrible stomach aches

Go to the bathroom and out comes a baby?

Lol. It was my sisters favorite show before Oprah bought it out.

[riderinthestorm]

7. The hospital she ostensibly gave birth in, doesn't list any Palin births that day.

Even her doctor won't confirm or deny that Palin gave birth to Trig.

How do you explain that?

[cynatnite]

10. HIPAA. They're bound by patient confidentiality.

No one in a hospital can say who is in that hospital at all...even if everyone knows for a fact they are there. There has to be a signed release.

[riderinthestorm]

14. Palin wasn't shy about trumpeting the baby's arrival on her terms

but she wouldn't let the hospital release the birth announcement along with all the others that happened at the hospital that day?

Really? Why not?

And her own doctor won't proudly say, "yes, it's a fine healthy boy?" Even after Sarah ostensibly gave birth to such a boy? What possible HIPAA concerns might there have been from her doctor after such an obvious event ("yes, my patient obviously had a baby")?

And this ignores the patently obvious that any hospital would be proud to be the site chosen (and not just chosen but specifically sought out after a 20 hour high risk plane ride from TX!!) by the state's governor. You don't think the hospital wouldn't have been allowed to crow about this, even a little?? Especially as it doesn't even have a high risk neonatal unit for such an important personage?

[krispos42]

9. A well-functioning set of lady bits

And abs of steel.

[Lint Head]

11. $100,000 dollars to raise.

[Blasphemer]

24. That's a very low estimate... especially considering higher education costs... nt

[Gormy Cuss]

12. Without commenting on the Palin rumor, it's naive to think that such a sham can't be pulled off

if the parties involved have enough influence and money.

It not only can be done, it IS done. I know several people who were raised as children of their biological grandparents without a clue of that status until adulthood.

[Coyote_Bandit]

15. Ummmm......

My healthcare provider is legally forbidden from revealing information regarding my health and the services they provided to me unless that becomes relevant in a legal proceeding.

[niyad]

16. having spent so much time in the medical field, what do you think is the likelihood that such an

elderly gravitas would spend hours at a conference after her water broke, spend 20 hours to fly back to alaska, in labour, and then spend time driving in a car 90 miles to get to her small home-town hospital?? wouldn't most such high-risk women be told by their docs that it probably wasn't a great idea to fly--let alone fly while in labour?

seriously, no editor would ever approve such a story in a novel--it would be deemed absolutely implausible and completely unbelievable.

[LynneSin]

17. 49 governors spent time with her that weekend- not one has said "yeah she looked pregnant"

I mean at least half of them were republicans, you'd think one of them would recall a conversation they had with Sarah about the baby and her being ready to deliver at any moment.

[riderinthestorm]

19. Not only that, but her small home town hospital isn't allowed to announce that the state's gov

DID do all that, in order to deliver her high needs child there? (where there isn't an intensive neo-natal unit in case her high needs babe needed it?)

Or better yet, her home town doc isn't even allowed to talk about being her doctor, or successfully delivering this baby?

Would this be common, that the STATE'S governor delivers in such a way but NONE Of these small town professionals or the hospital are "allowed" to mention their role, even years later, even as the STATE'S governor has said all of this in public, yet these entities are still somehow forbidden to talk about it/advertise it/crow about it a little?

[LisaL]

18. Medical professionals can not reveal anything about

their patients. Even if they wanted to.

[Snoutport]

20. can a woman whose water just broke fly two plane trips...a total of 20 hrs travel time

If you worked in the medical field...does a woman who is having a baby (with down syndrome no less) travel for 20 hours and bypass a hospital with a natal ward for a small-town hospital in the sticks? (I grew up in Wasilla, so, believe me, it is the sticks compared to anchorage) AND, could the flight crew of TWO flights (not to mention the two flights down) on the trip up didn't notice she was having a baby?

My mom was a navy pilot and then a stewardess. She says no. A woman in that condition would not be allowed to fly.

[niyad]

21. thank you. you brought up a point that very few people even seem to consider. what airline,

seriously, would allow an elderly gravitas in active labour to even board the plane?

[riderinthestorm]

22. I'm thinking of this from the marketing/business angle

In my area, hospitals advertise on big billboards!

If Sarah Palin delivered there, this would have been a marketing bonanza for that hospital, and her doctor. What a coup! She flew 20 hours, while in labor, after her water broke, to deliver with us!!11111!

The STATE'S governor, no less!

And yet, the very entities who stand to gain the most from such a meritorious act (assuming it's true), aren't "allowed" to speak about it. Won't even acknowledge it. In fact, didn't even do a pro forma birth announcement?

[Still Blue in PDX]

23. And we know no one ever lies on legal documents.

In closed adoptions medical records are altered. Legally. Health information is protected under HIPAA, so unless you have a damned good MEDICAL reason to find out what is in another person's record, you don't find out, and if you happen to know something, you don't talk about it.

I speak from 35+ years in health information management.