HW 39 - Insights from Book - Part 2

The book focuses on some of the atrocities we could never imagine with doctors, the amount of pressure they face and some of the things they do to get a drug approved by the FDA. The sad part is that sometimes the doctors are not telling the patients the dosages they are being given and even the drug and this has lead to many deaths of both the child and mother. Interviewer: “But should we wait until after we learn it before we say it is safe? Dr. Goldberg: It’s a catch-22. If you don’t use it, then you don’t learn” (Pg. 82). The main idea is that doctors use these pills and other medications on pregnant women as a test, they don’t actually know the effects but they feel that if the FDA won’t approve they have to make them. This is unsafe and dangerous because the doctor is not informing the patient of the kinds of medications they are being given that are potentially harmful to the child.

In the second 100 pages the book compares some of the differences between obstetricians and midwives. I do feel that obstetricians and midwives have a totally different approach to pregnancy. Midwives view birth as something your body does and obstetricians view it as a surgical procedure rather than something natural.


3. List 5 interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth discussed in the second hundred pages that you agree deserve wider attention (include page number).

1. Midwifery should be an available option because it is statistically proven to be safer than going to an obstetrician (Pg. 111).
2. Men are intimidated by midwives because other women are going to a woman for advice and men feel excluded from birth. With obstetricians it’s more of a man’s world because there are more male obstetricians than female, with nurses which are mostly women (Pg. 101).
3. Women need to feel confident of their situation, and that they can do it before they actually give birth. In a hospital setting the woman has less control of what’s happening to her body (Pg. 105).
4. Doctors do not like companies regulating their practices, such as the FDA (Pg. 97).
5. Inducing labor is a very risky process that leads to many different complications. Doctors use it for their benefit rather than the benefit of the “patient” (Pg. 93).
4. Independently research one crucial factual claim by the author in the second hundred pages and assess the validity of the author's use of that evidence.



I decided to research some of the rates of inducing labor during pregnancy. The rates of labor induction have risen from 0% of deliveries to more than 22%, between 1990 and 2006. Having a C-section is more common than a natural birth. Pregnancy has become more medicalized because more women are having their labor induced but this is more for the doctor’s benefit because they want to get out as soon as possible. (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2007754,00.html)