Your Legal Rights in the Birth Room with Attorney Hermine Hayes-Klein

Signing the general consent form when you walk into the hospital does not mean you have agreed to everything that follows.  Not the Pitocin.  Not the vaginal exam.  Not the electronic fetal monitor.  Not the cesarean.  Not the hospital policy.  Every single one of those still requires your informed consent. I had the privlege of sitting down with Hermine Hayes-Klein, an attorney who has spent 25 years specializing in women's rights in pregnancy and childbirth.  She moved to the Netherlands while pregnant with her first baby, watched a completely different birth system up close for five years, came home, and became a lawyer who takes the birth cases nobody else will touch.  The ones where the baby is okay but the mama is not. She represents the women nobody is fighting for. And she wins. What Hermine shares about your actual rights in the birth room is the kind of information that changes how you walk into every single prenatal appointment and ultimately into your birth.   **Here are some highlights from the episode:** - **What informed consent actually means** — and why signing a general consent when you walk into the hospital does not cover everything that follows - **The real cases behind Hermine's work** — and why she started taking them when nobody else would - **What hospital policies can and cannot do** — and why they do not get to override your legal and constitutional rights - **The specific ACOG documents Hermine recommends having printed** and highlighted in your hospital bag before labor starts - **The five sets of risks** every pregnant mama deserves to weigh when making birth decisions — and why providers are only ever talking about one of them - **Induction, breech birth, electronic fetal monitoring, AMA** — what you actually need to know about each of these - **The exact language you can use** to hold your ground in the birth room without being rude **Connect with Hermine:** 🌐 Website: Hayes Klein Law: https://www.hayeskleinlaw.com/  📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herminehayesklein/ **Documents to print and put in your hospital bag:** 📄 ACOG Ethics Committee Opinion — Maternal Refusal of Medically Recommended Treatment (June 2016) 📄 ACOG Committee Opinion on VBAC — if you are a VBAC mama 📄 ACOG Committee Opinion on Breech — most recent version 📄 Your state's informed consent statute — Oregon's is ORS 677.097 **Research mentioned:** 🔬 Search Neel Shah and Ank de Jonge together with the word induction or gestational age to find the three country study mentioned in this episode **Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!** Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>  On Apple Podcasts 1. Find “Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy” podcast 2. Select “Ratings and Reviews” 3. Click the stars! 4. Select “Write a Review” and tell us what was the most amazing, comforting, eye-opening thing that you loved! On Spotify 1. Find "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" podcast 2. Click the 3 dots "..." 3. Select "Rate podcast" 4. Click the stars and write a quick review! **FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!** Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds: - On Apple Podcasts → Tap the “+” Follow button in the top right corner of the show page. - On Spotify → Tap the “Follow” button right under the show titles **Let's Connect!** Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: **https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises** Join the Course! **https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted** Email: [**hello@myessentialbirth.com**](mailto:hello@myessentialbirth.com).  Follow **@myessentialbirth** on INSTAGRAM!