Doctors TV Show

I am so incredibly irritated after watching The Doctors...it's a spin-off from the Dr Phil show featuring doctors from different areas of medicine. One of the doctors is a OB/GYN and today's show had a segment on homebirth versus 'traditional' hospital birth. I really feel so ticked off right now I'm not sure where to begin. But I need to calm down so I can write a letter to this show so I'll vent here.

One of the things that really irritated me is how this doctor talked about her work in underdeveloped countries at improving maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Don't get me wrong, its wonderful that she does that kind of work. But she then said that she was helping to improve things there like what was done here in the US....what???!!!! She made it sound as if the US was number 1 with lowest mortality rates which is totally not true. Last I read, we ranked #26, with many European countries (where incidentally midwives do a bulk of the deliveries and home birth is much more common) beating the pants off of us.

She then talked about how safety was the top priority for OB/GYNs...as if midwives don't care about safety. The plastic surgeon mentioned at the beginning of the show that people talked about how doctors are trying to control everything and laughed. Shut the hell up - what would you know about it. Grrr...

I felt so incredibly bad for this couple who are looking into homebirthing but haven't decided. They had a couple who delivered at home and had a wonderful experience on for about 2 minutes. They had a couple on who's baby ended up with some rare kidney disorder fourteen years ago that was missed - so they had major problems right after delivery. Birth centers were briefly mentioned. The OB mentioned how birth centers aren't set up for emergencies?????!!!! She talked about how OB/GYNs are trained to handle all these emergencies. She also talked about all the major obstetrical emergencies such as shoulder dystocia, hemorrhage, fetal distress.

There was no discussion about midwives, and the various types of midwives - she discredited all of us. No discussion about how midwives were around far longer than doctors...not to mention how intially mortality worsened when poeple started using hospitals and doctors. Anyone remember 'twilight sleep' and forceps delivery for everyone? No discussion of research at all. It was sensationalism at its worst. Needless to say I won't be watching the show anymore.

Ok, anyway...I know, I shouldn't have been surprised. I need to go see who else is blogging about this and write a letter.