Ignorance is bliss ... well not always

Forgive me as I get on my soapbox for a bit... and I apologize in advance if I offend someone... these are just my thoughts....

Doctors work really hard to get their degree's and license... I mean its a specialty and they are subject matter experts on medicine and take a oath to do whats in best for their patients.  But does anyone else feel like they act like 'know it all's'?

 As a woman, the most remarkable memory in my short lived life is Michelle's birth.  It's the payoff moment for carrying her in-utero for 9 months.  It was the moment that I was anxiously waiting for since the day I got pregnant.  I was very blessed to have a pretty easy labor - long-ish but leaps and bounds better than my worst what-ifs.  I felt close to no contractions until after my water broke around midnight. And Michelle was born within 9 hrs of me reaching the hospital.  I got to the hospital and was already 6 cms dilated and I chose to get the epidural around the halfway point.  The pushing was hard but if you ask me today - I don't remember much of it.  The ob/gyn practice that I happen to choose turned out to be a great practice.  They are patient centric and never at any point did I feel like there was a lack of care.

But recently I have been hearing horror stories about birth stories - and while they might not seem that bad, to me they just seemed like bad decisions on the part of the doctors for their patients.  There is also the patient them self - some level of ignorance.  Every time I meet a pregnant person, I tell them to know their rights.  Know what you want.  Do your research.  Understand the process of birth.  Know and understand what you're body will be going through.  I mean, we hate have unnecessary service done on our cars, then why do we allow doctors to perform unnecessary procedures on us?  We are the customer - and while the Drs. do have the knowledge to take care of us - don't be afraid to ask questions.  Initiate conversations, get justifications, go in educated.

Knowledge is power and we can leverage that power until we know how to use it.

That's all for my soap box for today...

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