Tuesday, November 18, 2008

When Ignorance is Bliss, Try a Little Logic.

I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world. I happen to know him, he lives in Denmark and is currently studying in Liverpool....and him I am not....:0) Sorry I realize that may only be funny and/or cute to a small group of people...

Anyway, like I was saying, I don't claim to be. I don't claim to know everything about everything, but I would like to think I know a little something about a lot of stuff. For instance, I know there isn't any risk to my unborn child if I have an ultrasound. I know this, based on logic. I can logically state that if there was a significant chance of it, my doctor and the millions of other doctors around the worlds wouldn't do hundreds of them a day. And because I have never once heard of a deformed baby being born and the cause being it's routine 20 week ultrasound.

Logic.

Why do I bring something like this up. Because I host a board of pregnant woman, and today one reminded me of this couple I met in birthing class 5 years ago, when I was pregnant with Paige. It wasn't her, per say that reminded me of them more of the whirling mind of mine that remembered this couple in a strange "8 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" kind of way.

This couple was the "Green" couple, and back then when green wasn't the new black...it was just annoying. She sat there sipping her wheat gluten shake while he tapped his obnoxiously clean penny loafers on the carpet. Blah. I remember joking with Paige's dad that they were probably all normal in public but that the scarf on her neck was covering up asphyxiation marks from weird sex fantasies.

I thought this until they asked the teacher a question, and pretty much staged a coup, yes....a coup about a typical medical device they would refuse to use. When we were touring the birthing center, we were shown the Uterian Contraction Monitor that they attach to your tummy to read contractions during labor. This couple started off slowly by asking questions about the radioactive waves that could harm the baby. WHAT!? There's no radio active waves!

The doctor showing us around assured them there was no harm possible to the baby with this contraption. They went on to state they would not use it in the hospital, nor ultra sounds or even the fetal doppler to detect a heart beat. All non evasive ways of determining the heath of the baby and when it's coming....things of that nature.

I think at this point the doctor was flabergasted and was left with only one thing to say, to which I wanted to applaud. He told them if they didn't want to use current, up-to-date and state of the art equipment for the birth of their child, they should seek out delivering at home with a doula or mid-wife because delivering at the hospital could only get "so low tech".

The couples response about floored me. They stated they didn't want to take the chance of delivering at home and there being a problem with the baby and it needing to go to the NICU. Apparently medical equipment can only harm the baby before it was born. And might I point out, had they had any of the routine things done like ultrasounds and heartbeat detection they would KNOW if there was a problem and they could have prepared for it....LOGIC!

Ignorance. It apparently can stem solely from not taking the 15 minutes to research something on that wonderful thing called the internet or asking a medical professional. Hear one thing, see it on the cover of a tabloid and WALL AH! It's the newest craze.

So after that story I ask you to PLEASE, for the sake of all things human when you hear something, research it before jumping on the bandwagon! And by research I mean, read opposing studies too, not just one...thats not research...that's called believing everything you read.

Honestly, I think that if I actually have to read one more hocus pocus study that the amount of rain fall in your area can be linked to Autism, or that an ultrasound can harm your baby, or that jumping up and down or frequent movement will give the unborn baby, Shaken Baby Syndrome - I might scream. Back it up with cold hard medical facts and studies and I'll believe it. Until then I will logically keep listening to my doctor, and trust in the medical profession as a whole. Hell, I didn't go to school for this. Why go if I'm not going to listen to them?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The word is "coup" (an overthrow of the state), not "coo" (the sound a pigeon makes).

Me, My Shelf and I said...

Pregnancy Brain Strikes again! (Thank you!)

Holly Cummings said...

Great post. Common sense is, unfortunately, not so common. I've heard some semi-legitimate concerns about "high tech" labors, but usually they are accompanied by a lack of desire to be anywhere near a NICU. As you said, it's ironic that this couple would be so wary of technology prenatally and be so aware of its potential use postnatally! Any luck getting the 4D ultrasound?