I think we think we need what we're opffered yes. Several people said to me when i was planning a homebirth "Why do you think they let women birth in hospitals if it is so safe to do it at home?" and when i told them the facts about cost, about control and about standardisation of care they just went blank and said "Yeah, sure or maybe it's DANGEROUS!". Because they've been told it is. I know so many women told afterwards "it's a good job you were here! You might have died at home!", in several cases the women who had difficulty had medical inductions at EDD+4-10, epidurals, deep transverse arrest and high forceps deliveries and then a big bleed from haematoma's inside. HOW THE HECK WOULD THAT HAPPEN AT HOME!? But we don't question doctors. THere is this holiness around the medical ranks still, which is a closed community to so many. My GP i have just now i love because if i do some reading and come in to talk about my thyroid or whatever he always says, "you have more time for specific research than me, what have you got to tell me" and that is SO rare. So many doctor's attitude is "who here went to medical school?" When my mum was having her ablation (burning of faulty nerve paths in the heart) done before having her pacemaker fitted she was awake and sedated (they have to make you cough during the procedure so they can check they haven't punctured a lung) and was in agony everytime they used the ablation tool to burn. Her heartrate was sky-high, she was white, clammy, shaking, moaning at the exact moment of the burn (she couldn't see the controls to see when they were doing it) and afterwards went into medical shock and yet every time she told the surgeon she was in pain he said "EU guidelines state this is a non-painful procedure"!

The medical model is failing women and babies because there is too much emphasis on what one can do to treat a set of symptoms or conditions and NOT enough on what is appropriate for an individual. FOr instance women who are given pitocin to hurry along a normal but slow labour. Baby is not distressed, mum is doing ok and has a lot of options for pain-relief and care, WHY are we risking their wellbeing to hasten things for no reason?

Hospitals and the medical model there can and does save lives, but so so many women are unneccessarily injured with treatment they do not need whether they want it or not. It seems with every new drug there is a new condition to treat.

Bx