<<From:    Jay Gordon 

 

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/92/6/755

 

 

PEDIATRICS Vol. 92 No. 6 December 1993, pp. 755-760>>

 

Thanks for posting that study-I've never seen that.  I'll share a couple of
anecdotes about eye treatment.  In 1976, when planning my first homebirth, I
went on the hosp tour with my husband (he's an M.D.).  We knew we were
monogamous and didn't have gonnorhea so wanted to refuse silver nitrate (the
only eye treatment used at that time).  We were assured that it didn't
bother the baby a bit by the nurse who did the tour.  My husband asked if he
could have a vial to test on his own eyes. We took it home, he sat on the
toilet seat and I put one drop into his eye.  Next thing, he leaped up and
dived into the bathtub and started flushing his eye with water from the
faucet.  He said it was excruciating, no wonder they had stopped using it to
treat the eyes of adults long before.  

 

The other interesting anecdote I have is that I met a doctor in the early
years of my midwifery training who had worked up in the far north of Canada
in clinic outposts with long geographical distances for the patients
(largely First Nations people) to travel.  He said that, despite the use of
routine silver nitrate treatment, they would see babies in the clinic with
full blown gonorrhea eye infections.  The eyes would be caked with dried
green pus and had been for some time.  They would then treat the infection
and he said that he never had a single case of blindness despite this poor
care.  

 

It's hard to imagine that someone living in an urban setting could leave a
baby with pus on the eyes for very long without raising concern.  I think
it's a shame that we are terrorized with the word "blind" because it's
certainly something that no health professional would want to be responsible
for and it's a way to keep these practices going despite no benefit.

Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC Canada

http://www.glorialemay.com/blog

 


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