Doctors Know Best, For Themselves… – Elie T.

As I have continued to read Get Me Out by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D it has been very interesting to learn about how women are having babies in hospitals with real doctors that actually wash their hands and also take “vitamins” to help with their pregnancy (even if they aren’t very good to take), since we all first read about women having babies in their homes and having a delivery with dirty hands.

Something that got me hooked was the debate on doctors performing cesarean sections (c- sections) on mothers. Some women, such as Victoria Posh who wanted a c-section because she wanted one, not for anything medical, but there was so much chaos about women doing what they what for their delivery-again. In the delivery room their is a fetal monitor that records the baby’s heart beat, doctors were so afraid of being sued and having a lawsuit on their hands so they watched the monitor beyond closely and if there was even the slightest blip, even if it meant nothing, they would do a c-section. So at first c-sections very popular, but of course women are supposed to cherish the gift of birth giving so vaginal delivery was recommended unless a c-section was needed for medical reasons. There was so much question of whether or not a patient can tell the doctor what to do. Dr. Charles Lockwood (chairman at Yale) said, “C-section is as safe pas a trail of labor then he or she is obligated to respect the patient’s autonomy and perform a C-section.” (166) However doctors have a rule of do no harm first which makes them not recommend c-sections.

I did some research of how c-sections are today, from the CDC page I discovered the rates of both deliveries, I also looked up more about c-sections with the U.S and the rest of the world. After looking at these websites and reading I still think women should be able to have a vaginal delivery or a c-section since they are the ones that are obviously having the baby.

As I continued reading I learned that once Dr. Naftolin thought “a discussion among peers, rather than with lawyers, would shift the decision tree” (167), I agree with discussing with other doctors but I think women should have a choice with how they wish to deliver their baby (whether it’s at home, in a hospital, naturally, twilight sleep or a c-section). The doctors were only thinking about everyone women having the same size baby and the whole delivery the same if there was not complications, which is not how decisions should happen medically. However reading this section of the book was interesting to learn about and know how women and other doctors did stand up to get what mothers wanted. I look forward to reading more and learning more as the books leads into the 20th- century.