"The longer I live the more I find myself surprised about the authority we women have handed over to others especially when we are vulnerable." Can I second, third and fourth this comment? This is an issue that drives me just nuts. I see again and again women agreeing (or at least not protesting) to the most amazing things! I spend the majority of my prenatal care trying to educate my patients and train them to make their own choices. I suggest books for them to read (and keep copies in my OB exam room), I tell them every visit to come to their next with a list of questions, I push them to take every prenatal class they can get their hands one, and yet even with all of that the grand majority of my patients never question me. Sometimes I feel like I could suggest they paint the baby purple and at least some parents would comply! I am currently seeing a friend I trained with for OB care for #4 and I'm driving her nuts, too, since I refuse to have the "standard of care." I feel that for myself, I greatly prefer patients who questions me. I prefer them to say "but why can't we do it this way?" Patients who let me do whatever I want put an awful lot of pressure on me to try to do what's right without their guidance. I suppose that's comforting to a doctor with an authoritarian complex, but it drives me insane! Jennifer Tieman Family Physician Mom to 3, and new baby #4 expected 5/31/03 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html