Topic: Medicine rant
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February 16th, 2013, 12:04 PM
NinjaCakes's Avatar
NinjaCakes NinjaCakes is offline
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2,331
I have bronchitis, which isn't a big deal. I get it at least once every winter. Germs just like my lungs. I've obviously never had it while pregnant though, so on Tuesday I called the nurse practitioner at my doctors office wondering if there was something I didn't know I should do, etc. She said to take some robitussin and drink a lot of water. Ok, simple enough. Then I got to thinking about how people take dextromethorphan to get high, wondering how that could be safe to pour down my babies figurative throat. So I searched the main ingredients pregnancy class - C because no studies have been done.

That really ticked me off. How can they so carelessly tell a pregnant woman to take something when they don't know anything about how it affects the baby - AND not even tell me? So it hasn't shown any adverse affects that they know of so far - the same was true about a lot of medications that we now know are dangerous. As a pregnant woman I would appreciate knowing what they're telling me to put in my body may have dangers they aren't aware of so I can make an informed decision. Obviously I've decided not to take it (fortunately/unfortunately my boyfriend is sick now too, so it's not being wasted). I know it's not thalidomide but I do know people who abused robitussin and it caused a host of medical problems - one being kidney failure. If it could do that to a grown man, imagine what it could do to a 6" baby. I don't like that thought.

This goes to how I feel about all the unnecessary pregnancy interventions. It seems like we live in a culture so obsessed with doing things the easiest way, or the quickest way, etc that what's best for the baby just falls to the bottom. Let's pencil in a cesarean because this mom doesn't want to go past 37 weeks. Artificially rupture membranes hoping it will start labor, even though it could cause a very dangerous infection. Drown women in pitocin so we can get the birth over with faster, even though it's not necessary or good for the babies. Let's cut the cords ASAP and whip the babies away from them for a bath and a bunch of needles so we don't have to wait around. And let's not tell them that these are things that are usually not necessary, and sometimes not even safe.

It's so frustrating. I wish there was something that could be done about it. Leave it to humans to take things that are helpful when they're needed and turn them in to our daily bread, and never mind the consequences.

Thanks so much Claire for my awesome siggy
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