Consumer First, Patient Second

One of our BBN members passed along this article, which talks about why it's important to find the right doctor for your birth. My experience in urban India is that women and couples have to do a great amount of self-advocacy in order to get accurate information, assert their birth preferences (assuming there are some!), and have some amount of control over their delivery. This is a crucial exercise for having a satisfying birth experience.

Here's an excerpt from the article, which speaks to what we in the Bangalore Birth Network have been discussing for awhile now:

If [physicians'] parameters of care include routine epidurals, episiotomies for all their patients, routines IVs, etc. then that is their place of comfort in giving care. If you don’t want any of those things, you’d be much better off finding a different physician than trying to convert this one to your way of thinking, because you’re asking them to take themselves out of their comfort zone to care for you. It’s important that as consumers of healthcare, women understand the pressures that come to bear upon care providers.

Click here to read the entire article.