122: Amanda's Pregnancy, Birth & Chronic Pain Story, Pt. 1

"Your body's just preparing for labor." That's what doctors told Amanda while she was in liver failure. In this episode, Amanda finally shares part one of her chronic pain story — and it starts with a pregnancy and birth experience that shows exactly how the medical system fails women. Trigger warning for birth trauma and suicidal thoughts. If you are interested in just the chornic pain part, you can just listen next week to part 2!

In conversation, we discuss:

• How Amanda's "worst pain of my life" got dismissed for weeks before an emergency diagnosis of HELLP syndrome and a C-section under general anesthesia
• The paternity test spiral: what happens when neither parent sees the baby being born
• Why a social worker kept pressuring Amanda to pump while she was hallucinating on a magnesium drip
• The back surgery double standard: why Amanda's sister-in-law got PT, prep, and compassion for the same incision Amanda was told to walk off
• Sam's rant on "a woman dies and a mother is born" and why she's done telling women to push through pain (spoiler: men aren't)
• The psychiatrist who said "you might not be a good candidate for breastfeeding" and why that sentence was the best informed consent Amanda ever got

The book that Amanda referenced is called "The Way Out" by Alan Gordon. This is part one of two — next week we get into the chronic pain itself and what actually helped.

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