"I think sometimes ignorance is bliss"

[Trillian]

I think there is difference between not wanting to hear about other people's birth experiences, or hear about all the things that can possbily go wrong in labour and birth, and not having a clue about the mechanics of how labour and birth work. I think all women, at the very least, need to be informed about normal, physiological labour and birth - how it works and how our bodies are designed to give birth vaginally. And if their health care provider proposes a certain intervention, women are entitled to full disclosure of the reasons, and the risks and benefits of such. That is being informed IMO and the level to which you wish to be informed is a personal thing - some of us are content with the explanations we are given by our doctors/midwives, some of us want to know more.

Bon you sum it up really well.

Jaz, I hope nothing I said made you feel unsure about posting because I do understand.

It's just that I think the majority of women are so uninformed about the potential risks simply because they never get told as Dr's can be cagey buggers and don't always disclose 100% of the information. Women cannot have complete autonomy in birth unless they know all the facts. Before I came here I had no idea about the risks of inductions or c/s's because even though I had had 3 children by then, I was never told about the side effects of syncto inductions - even though I had several of them kwim? I know that sometimes knowing too much can be hard to get out of your head when you just need to focus, but it's that knowledge that can make the difference sometimes.

[Patooties]

hey Trill - not at all. I didn't really mean anyone in particular in this thread - I guess across the board there are some incredibly passionate people ( which is wonderful) that i guess I often feel intimated by. (my choice to allow myself to feel intimated though, so my own problem )

with my own inductions - my Ob didn't tell me all of the things that could go wrong - and I started to do a little reading, but then decided against knowing everything, just because I didn't want to stress myself. It wasn't until I joined here that I was thankful that I didn't know! It may have been a different story if my ob was suggesting induction for no particular reason - then i would have done a bit of research.