They Say: Doctors Have Feelings Too

Amy Kuras — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:32:00 GMT

Hmmm, maybe they are not coldblooded perpetrators of the "birth-industrial complex" after all: One in 10 obstetricians have been sufficiently impacted by the stillbirth or neonatal death of a baby they delivered that they have considered giving up their practice, and three quarters said they had profound anxiety, guilt and stress over such negative outcomes for their patients, according to a University of Michigan study of more than 800 OBs.

As somebody whose kids were both birthed via c-section, one emergency, one not, I am not a fan of the Ricki Lake-esque earthy-birthies in the first place. I've got no beef with midwives, homebirth, natural childbirth or anything else that lets someone give birth the way she wants, but I expect the same respect accorded to how I chose to give birth. I'm willing to concede the point that birth doesn't need to be medicalized, but some of us just do feel more comfortable with someone who went to school a lot longer than we did keeping an eye on things.

And aside from the smugness and belittling of other mothers for making dfferent decisions, my other major issue with the earthy-birthy crowd is this reflexive distrust of doctors. I was lucky enough to sort of stumble into a great OB and have heard some awful stories from others who weren't so lucky, but what this story reinforced is that most of them aren't unfeeling scalpel-wielders but people and professionals who want good outcomes for their patients.

Strollerderby : emotional effects

They Say: Doctors Have Feelings Too