Indiana Hospital threatened to take our healthy newborn

Location: Southern Indiana

I gave birth to my child 10 months ago in an Indiana hospital. We told them ahead of time that we wanted to leave ASAP (since we had another child and didn’t want to stay long).

Everything went well. Our second child was born big and healthy. We stayed for all the check ups and told them we wanted to leave at the 24 hour mark. Everyone signed off on us leaving except the pediatrician.

This pediatrician (Who was not the one we picked and we did not ask for) had already examined our child and said all was good to go. When it came time, the pediatrician refused to sign off on our child leaving and said they wanted to see them a second time (which I was not previously informed about).

We proceeded to tell them we needed to leave with our newborn and they had some lady come in to “talk to us about what happens if we do”. This woman tells us that they will call it “going against medical advice” and that “they will not discharge our newborn”, “they will keep our baby in the hospital and will call CPS on us for child abandonment”. We were going to leave with our child. We ended us staying because of the threats (in their smallest and hottest postpartum room that nurses were complaining about). We were told that the Pediatrician would be there at a certain time to do a second exam on our newborn, and she did not return for hours. I asked many times if they knew where she was and we were told that no one had seen her and even when she did arrive, it was still a long wait.

Everything I’ve read on this issue says that hospitals are not allowed to hold you or your child. Can I take legal action? It has been 10 months and this situation still angers me and makes me terrified to ever go to a hospital again to give birth.