chicago510;761487 wrote:What other advice would you seek other than someone who has studied 7-10 years in medicine and and obstetrics?
First, realize that the doctor is not necessarily looking out for your best interests, so you're well advised to do some research and consider things for yourself. E.g., I don't think anyone can seriously argue that we need all the C-sections that we have, and yet they continue to increase because they're much more convenient for doctors and hospitals make a lot more money off it. The long-term health outcomes for women with c-sections are worse; it destroys muscle, it increases the chance of infection, it requires a longer recovery time.
That's not to say that c-sections are bad. Clearly, in some instances they're essential to keeping the baby alive. But I don't think anyone can really argue that we need as many as we have. Compare our outcomes to any other developed country and you'll see what I mean.
Or, for another example, many women go in, lay down on the bed, shoot up with an epidural, and then have their contractions stop. The doctor sees this, gives them pitocin to speed things up, which increases the pain, which requires another epidural, etc. Then, because things aren't progressing past some arbitrary time--because the women is lying down instead of walking or sitting on a birthing ball, and because the epidural has numbed her from the waist down so she can't have productive contractions/pushing--we immediately jump to a c-section, despite it not being medically necessary.
Women throughout history and throughout the rest of the world have been much more active during labor, and it's really only the US in the last few decades that has gone over to the "women in bed not moving while drugged up" model. Walking around during labor dramatically speeds it up and makes the process move along.
Like I said, I'm no advocate for home births. We had our baby born in a hospital. But there certainly are situations where a doctor/hospital have interests that are not aligned with the patient, and it's important to be aware of that. As an analogy, if you went in to a car mechanic, and every time, they recommended the most expensive possible fix, you'd be silly not to get a second opinion or to do some research on your own, even if they're been doing this their entire life. When you're dealing with something as important as child birth, you're crazy not to do some reading on your own.