Most of us trust doctors. I trust doctors! But recently I've been learning about how that trust shouldn't be blind trust and we should be our own health advocates.
Why be skeptic of Drs., specifically with prenatal care? I have been doing a lot of reading lately, particularly on labor and birth, and it turns out those in obstetrics don't always have the best ideas for everyone since they are trained to handle problematic pregnancies and births, not normal ones. Please feel free to do your own research on the subject, but there are all sorts of typical procedures and interventions that are not only not necessary, but aren't a good idea either. There are now birth guidelines that suggest avoiding routine episiotomies and electronic fetal monitoring, delaying cord clamping, letting the baby room in instead of going to a nursery, avoiding elective cesareans that don't have a good reason, etc. Not to mention the bad birth practices of cold, uninviting hospital rooms, laboring on one's back which restricts pelvis size, not letting woman eat or drink during labor, and wanting labor to progress within a time limit! Have I mentioned how the US has the highest rates for c-sections and is considered one of the worst developed countries in terms of prenatal care and birth outcomes? Gah! The reasons we got to this place are mostly historical and not medically based by the way. Fascinating to read about.
The main reason all this boils my blood is the lack of transparency. Women often go through all the prenatal testing and birth interventions suggested and many do so without skipping a beat, but don't we have options? Shouldn't we know exactly what is going on and why? It would be great if before each next step the Dr. explained the exact procedure, research backing up the reliability and validity of the results and necessity of the procedure, the pros and cons, and then said we recommend _______, but discuss it with your partner and let us know what you decide. Does this ever happen? No. Typically for a prenatal appointment you wait in the waiting room for a long while, are told a test is going to be done, then it's done. You may see the Dr. for 5 minutes when he asks if you have any questions, but really he's already late for the next woman and you walk out of the office wondering if anyone will ever sit down and talk with you about what pregnancy is really like instead of passing you off as another patient.
My information on such a topic has not only come from personal experiences but from HOURS of book reading, journal article reading, internet searches, and the positive and negative opinions of both those I know and those I don't. In anything we do, we should all inform ourselves, but has any of this information come from my OB office? No. Have they pointed me towards any resources? No. Have they done anything wrong? Well, technically no, but do I feel well informed or well taken care of? No. I'm just another pregnant sheep in the herd.
There are both plenty of care providers who do a wonderful job and plenty of woman who are fighting to be more informed and involved in the decisions about their own bodies, so I know I'm not the only one with a bone to pick on this topic. I am also clearly willing to do my own research and fight my own fight. But you know what? I'm a little tired of fighting today. It's a little exhausting to put so much effort into my own research just so I can feel like I have a basic understanding of what is going on, let alone make decisions and defend them. I'm slightly tempted to move to the Netherlands for the best care. Anyone else?
No comments:
Post a Comment