New York Times Fall Out

Responses on the web to my New York Times op ed piece last Friday have been interesting. Mama sites have generally been positive (see http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2006/03/25/bedrest-a-novel/; http://www.mamazine.com/Pages/mamalike231.html, post plus comments; also March 27, http://allthis.typepad.com/ - Emmie has posted on this site as well).

I've also been inundated by Emails from women around the world saying, this happened to me, it was incredibly hard, thanks for talking about it. These have been wonderful to receive.

Medical blogs, on the other hand, have been less complimentary. Who is this woman and why is she "whining" about her medical advice? they say (I wonder if I'd have been accused of "whining" if  this piece had appeared under a man's name?). She was at perfect liberty to ignore the advice she was given, they continue.

Now this strikes me as an extraordinary response. Presumably I have a right to expect that the medical profession will give me the right advice and not the wrong advice! If the evidence is not there to support the use of bed rest, then for God's sake, why on earth would you prescribe it? And oddly enough, I've seen no postings or comments that say, 'look, I know the evidence is sketchy right now, but my own clinical experience tells me that bed rest works.' If I read that, I'd think; fair enough; I might encourage you to investigate clinical studies further, but such a response would convince me that the doctor was acting in good faith. It might even make me think that the evidence for bed rest's use is there, it just hasn't been uncovered yet.

Instead the postings suggest that many doctors know perfectly well bed rest may not work, but they feel it persuades patients that everything possible is being done to ensure a good outcome (which is what I said in my op ed, incidentally). "This author would be the first to sue if something went wrong," one doctor cried (I'm not quoting directly, but that's the substance of it). Er - no actually. (And by the way, again this was a suggestion I made in the article - that fear of litigation encourages doctors to prescribe the rest cure.)

Look, it's not up to a medical practicioner to decide what will make me feel I'm doing my best! Frankly, if that's the only reason they're prescribing bed rest, why not tell us all to go home and pray? Many women would no doubt find this more comforting - and it would impose fewer restrictions on their lives, not to mention having fewer physical and psychological consequences.

I want to stress, it's not that I think the entire medical profession is represented in the few blogs I've read. It's not that I think individual practitioners who prescribe bed rest are acting in bad faith. I think my own doctors are lovely people who genuinely did the best for me they could.

I'm taking issue with the profession writ large, with its prevailing mode of operation, and also with *some* silly doctors who are acting like daddies, even as they tell ME I'm acting like a child for complaining about the advice I was given. If you give the advice, take responsibility for it! Do the research! (Some web-posters have even claimed that the woman on bed rest should do the research and decide for herself whether to continue on bed rest; another astounding claim. So a woman with no medical training should analyze years of clinical research and make a decision that will affect the health of another human being???)

Don't think for me. Don't decide what will make me feel better. Give me sage, reasoned advice I can trust. Is that too much to ask?

- Sarah

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