Stillbirth question

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heidik

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In February, we lost our full term daughter. (She was born 1 day before her due date and was estimated to have died 2 - 3 days before that.) My midwife could not find the heartbeat and after a trip to the hospital, an ultrasound confirmed that our baby had passed away. My husband and I chose to have labor induced. I desperately wanted to hold and see my baby before there was much decomposition. Little did I know that yet another kick in the gut would be coming. We received our insurance statement about the bill and under description of service, it said, “Abortion”.

My question is, if we’d decided to go to the Catholic pro-life hospital rather than the nearest hospital, would they have not offered to induce? Would they have another way to bill the insurance? Would they at least have warned me??
  • Heidi
 
I’m so sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question…
But I just wanted to offer my thoughts and prayers. I’m so terribly sorry for your loss. 😦
 
Heidi, you may want to call the insurance company and ask. My guess is that “abortion” is the generic term used when a birth does not result in a live baby. It’s horribly insensitive to people in your situation, so at the very least I would call both the insurance co. and the hospital insurance billing dept to lodge a complaint.

I am so sorry for your loss. 😦
 
I’m terribly sorry for your loss. That is so sad.

Unfortunately, if my layman’s understanding of medical terminology is correct, all in-utero death is labelled an “abortion.” Miscarriages are “spontaneous abortion” while what we would normally call an abortion (i.e. the deliberate kind) is an “induced abortion.”

You’re right, it is a kick in the gut. This isn’t a religious versus secular thing, it’s an unfortunate artifact of medical language.

I’m in the same position right now-- I’m supposed to be nine weeks pregnant, but baby had no heartbeat last week and no heartbeat today, and no growth over the week’s time. 😦 When the OB sent me for a more detailed u/s last week after she couldn’t find the heartbeat in her office, she told the radiology department that she had a patient with a “missed AB,” i.e. a missed abortion. I get the sense that when it comes to discussing this around patients with miscarriages and stillbirths, the tendency is to abbreviate with AB in order to avoid exactly the kick in the gut you received…

Anyway, this very Catholic OB, practicing out of the local Catholic hospital, would have no issue with inducing a miscarriage or stillbirth. It is completely morally acceptable. You didn’t do anything wrong by wanting to see and hold your baby.

Best,

Margaret
 
I am so sorry for your loss. About inducing, I don’t see why they would have not offered to induce at the other hospital, it seems like a very reasonable decision, in no way anti-life, at such a difficult time. About the wording, I don’t know if it would have been different at the other hospital. There are spontaneous abortions (not done on purpose) and induced abortions (done on purpose). In your case it was clearly not an induced abortion, but maybe it fell under spontaneous abortion? I am not sure why the induction would be labeled that way, unless they consider stillbirth to be a type of spontaneous abortion and use that term for anything related to it. Either way, I cannot imagine how distressing it must be for a mother that has just lost her little one to have to read it labeled that way. I am so sorry for your having to deal with this. I don’t know if you have the emotional strength to contact the insurance company and hospital to let them know how insensitive the wording selected was, but if you do, maybe you could place a few calls or write some letters. I am so sorry for your loss.
 
heidik said:
In February, we lost our full term daughter. (She was born 1 day before her due date and was estimated to have died 2 - 3 days before that.) My midwife could not find the heartbeat and after a trip to the hospital, an ultrasound confirmed that our baby had passed away. My husband and I chose to have labor induced. I desperately wanted to hold and see my baby before there was much decomposition. Little did I know that yet another kick in the gut would be coming. We received our insurance statement about the bill and under description of service, it said, “Abortion”.

My question is, if we’d decided to go to the Catholic pro-life hospital rather than the nearest hospital, would they have not offered to induce? Would they have another way to bill the insurance? Would they at least have warned me??
  • Heidi
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I am terribly sorry to hear about your loss. May God bless you and your family, may He bring you comfort and peace.
 
The term itself, “abortion,” means that the baby, although induced, was not alive at the onset of artificial or natural delivery. And yes, miscarriage is called “spontaneous abortio.,”

‘Abortion’ is the loss of a pregnancy and does not refer to why that pregnancy was lost. It is sad when someone thinks about ‘abortion’ and automatically equates it with murder, when that’s not clearly defined to in the true medical term. To apply the work to murder alonse is a misnomer.

Whe I was spotting in my first trimester, the paperwork said “Abortion, threatened,” and I raised holy he** over that, until I was given the correct info.
 
Here is some info on the terminology, from medicinenet.com/miscarriage/page4.htm
What are common terms a woman might hear during evaluation for miscarriage?
  1. Miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) is termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable (able to survive).
  2. Complete abortion describes spontaneous (not intentionally induced by medication or procedures) passage of all fetal and placental tissue. This is common prior to 12 weeks’ gestation.
  3. Incomplete abortion is when some, but not all, the fetal and placental tissue is expelled.
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  1. Products of conception refers to the combination of fetal and placental tissue.
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  1. Threatened abortion is when a miscarriage does not actually occur, but there is vaginal bleeding from the uterus. The cervix will not be dilated and does not show signs of imminent passage of fetal and placental tissue.
  2. Missed abortion describes a fetal death in the uterus prior to viability, but the products of conception are not passed.
  3. A septic (infectious) abortion is caused by bacterial infection and accompanied by fever, chills, pain, and a pus-containing discharge.
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I hope you can find some comfort in this, heidik. Your case doesn’t really fit into the criteria above, so they slapped the generic all-encompassing label on you. I don’t think anyone meant to use medical terms with aspersions or insults.

:console:
 
I just want you to know that I am praying for you and your family as you deal with such a heartbreaking loss.
 
Take comfort in knowing that your child is now surrounded by the ultimate love, God’s Love, in Heaven.

My heart aches for you.
 
Anyway, this very Catholic OB, practicing out of the local Catholic hospital, would have no issue with inducing a miscarriage or stillbirth. It is completely morally acceptable. You didn’t do anything wrong by wanting to see and hold your baby
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Thankyou, Margaret. This is what I needed to hear more than anything. I did do some calling today - though I didn’t manage to keep the tears under control while on the phone. Oh well. They did say that it was the medical terminology. They “have to” code it according to cpt code 59855 - abortion by suppositories for dilation. (I guess a cpt code doesn’t exist that exactly describes such a situation.) I also talked to the office of a Catholic doctor and asked as a theoretical question. They seemed to think they could code it as a “treatment for a missed abortion” rather than as an “abortion”. I think I could have handled that better. Thankyou to all of you who posted that you were praying. 🙂
  • Heidi
 
Red_Meg said:
Unfortunately, if my layman’s understanding of medical terminology is correct, all in-utero death is labelled an “abortion.” Miscarriages are “spontaneous abortion” while what we would normally call an abortion (i.e. the deliberate kind) is an “induced abortion.”
Click to expand...
Yeah . . . a cousin of ours had to insist that the doc add “spontaneous” to her records when she had a miscarriage. He just wrote “abortion”. Sad 😦
 
heidik said:
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Thankyou, Margaret. This is what I needed to hear more than anything. I did do some calling today - though I didn’t manage to keep the tears under control while on the phone. Oh well. They did say that it was the medical terminology. They “have to” code it according to cpt code 59855 - abortion by suppositories for dilation. (I guess a cpt code doesn’t exist that exactly describes such a situation.) I also talked to the office of a Catholic doctor and asked as a theoretical question. They seemed to think they could code it as a “treatment for a missed abortion” rather than as an “abortion”. I think I could have handled that better. Thankyou to all of you who posted that you were praying. 🙂
  • Heidi
Click to expand...
I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but something similar happened to my mother a long time ago.

Make sure you get it in writing, because the insurance company may try to bill you later. Do not let them pressure you into that!!! The circumstances of what happened may not be readily available to whomever audits the transaction. This is common enough with hospitals. Make sure you hold on to all your paperwork.

God bless you as your child is called home. Amen.
 
I’ve been researching this online all day. It makes me so mad. Even if they call the death of our baby an abortion - and I can sort of understand that, the spontaneous abortion already happened. They did not DO an abortion. Apparently they can use code 59409 for vaginal delivery with the outcome modifier v27.1 for single stillborn. The nearest Catholic hospital forms seem to list it that way. The doctor we ended up with at the hospital we went to just didn’t! Grr! - Heidi
 
My thoughts and prayers are with you. I suffered a miscarriage many years ago and I can still feel the pain of the loss. May God bless you and keep you.
 
Heidi, I’m so sorry for your loss. 😦 Please find comfort in the fact that through your grief (and sadness… caused by the hospital coding) that your precious daughter is safe in the Arms of Jesus and Mary. And you will see her again.

God bless you and your family.
 
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