Likewise, "The Future of Children" report by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation reviewed the research on bed rest in twin pregnancies and concluded "that in the absence of proof of the effectiveness of bed rest, its use should be curtailed sharply."
Yet Maloni's research shows about ninety percent of American obstetricians still prescribe bed rest in some form, continuing to believe in its value despite mounting evidence to the contrary. "Doctors aren't trying to do the wrong thing, but it takes a long
time to change conventional wisdom," says Dr. Simhan.
Maloni believes change might only come if insurance companies stop paying for bed rest-related medical expenses — or if women empower themselves to ask their doctors the right questions about the efficacy of bed rest and its side effects. At the very least,
she says, pregnant women placed on bed rest should get a second opinion from a perinatologist (an expert specializing in high-risk pregnancies) and ask their doctor for a comprehensive physical assessment and rehabilitation program after childbirth.
"I've never told a woman not to go on bed rest — that's an individual question that people have to answer with the help of their physicians," Maloni says. "Instead, I just keep calling on the professions of nursing and medicine to incorporate scientific
evidence into their practice and change the model of care."
I will never know if I helped avert a real threat to my baby's life.For as long as doctors keep prescribing bed rest, pregnant women like myself — terrified and vulnerable — will listen.
Author and English literature professor Sarah Bilston was placed on bed rest during her first pregnancy for low amniotic fluid, an experience that inspired her bestselling novel Bed Rest, and its sequel, Sleepless Nights, to be published this August.
When doctors prescribed Bilston bed rest again during her second pregnancy, she briefly considered not complying, but couldn't go through with it.
"I knew all the studies from my research for the book," Bilston says. "But when your child's life is on the line, what woman is going to do anything other than what she is told to do by her doctor? If they had asked me to stand on my head for six months,
I probably would have done that, too."
Blucher agrees — and now has a positive outlook about her time spent on bed rest. "When you are lying there day after day in a fight with your emotions, bed rest can be the hardest thing," she says. "But I just look at Maddy — she's an amazing, healthy kid
— and it puts everything into perspective."
After spending four weeks on bed rest, my obstetrician was no longer worried about my baby's birth weight and allowed me to walk again and even return to work. A week later, Ilyssa was born full-term and healthy, weighing 5 pounds, 11 ounces.
I suppose I will never truly know if I helped avert a real threat to my baby's life. And of course I'd do it again if that's what the doctor orders the next time around. But should most women ever have to? Probably not. Let's hope one day medicine agrees.
