Just because I'm an OB/GYN physician...
~ don't assume that I don't care about you as an individual.
~ don't assume that I'm out to cut your baby out of your womb in favor of getting home for dinner.
~ don't assume that I go home and roll around naked in piles of money.
~ don't assume that I view pregnancy or birth as an "illness."
~ don't assume that I don't know anything about "natural " (unmedicated) labor, transition, or alternate pushing positions.
~ don't assume that any inductions of labor that I schedule are done for *my* convenience.
~ don't assume that I will roll my eyes at your birth plan.
~ don't assume that my attempts to educate you about your pregnancy are "scare tactics."
~ don't assume that I am "what is wrong" with the way women give birth.
~ don't assume that the only way I know how to facilitate labor and delivery is through "unnecessary interventions."
~ don't assume that I am an unfeeling automaton who wants to "put you on the assembly line."
~ don't assume that I am "too busy" to take proper care of you.
~ don't blindly believe everything you see and read about my profession.
I've been doing some browsing through different labor/nursing/birth blogs, and, as it is wont to do, it depresses the living hell out of me. Partially because I know that I am not close to 90% of the descriptions I see from women out there, and partially because I'm starting to worry that maybe I am an exception and not the rule. In my current practice, I can see a definite split between the younger generation of physicians and the older generation. I certainly believe that through medical school and residency that I was taught a much more "collaborative" model of care than earlier generations. However, no one in my practice comes close to the urban legends out there perpetuated by the anti-medical world. I know I've ranted about this before, but it bothers me! So many physicians with whom I work have sacrificed *so much* for their training, for their ability to help people, just to be mistrusted and maligned by the population at large. Perhaps the most disheartening thing, is that there can be no real dialogue between the two philosophies, so jaded are our particular perspectives. Nothing I can say on this blog can convince you that I'm not a knife-wielding harpy, but if you were my patient, you would know.
P.S. I have been playing around, trying to start a facebook page for this blog. Any tips on how to make it better? I am poor at social networking!
