Liability

Liability
By Teresa Henderson

Just call me a liability,
That’s what they see me as anyway.
One glance at my chart and they recall,
I’m the one who refuses all their protocol.
A court case, a settlement, is what they see,
I’m just a liability.

Just call me a liability,
Refusing things so sternly.
No glucose test, no dopplers,
No peek to see if there’s one, two, or three.
How can they make a guarantee,
I’m just a liability.

Just call me a liability,
They can’t provide prenatal care to me.
Refusing this and this and that,
Right down to that pap.
Why would I refuse they ask?
A liability is that.

Just call me a liability,
The OBs, Nurses, and Medwives agree.
Refuse their life saving devices,
And baby will arrive with many vices.
Their Insurance warns them of me,
That big, old, scary liability.

I’m not a liability,
Informed consent is my priority.
Refusing things I don’t view as necessary,
To avoid their interventionary.
A normal birth is what I desire,
Risk or liability I am neither.

What then is a liability,
For those OBs, Nurses, and Medwives three?
They say, if you want a baby of perfection,
Do as they say without inquisition.
When things go wrong who do parents say hold accountability?
Implying perfection is the true liability.

I found this poem here.