Naomi Bar-Yam wrote:

> About the OBs and pediatricians who give poor, misleading and downright
> incorrect info about breastfeeding, does this make anyone wonder about
> the accuracy of info that they give us about things that we don't know
> as much about as breastfeeding? Makes one nervous, doesn't it?

Absolutely.


When Lexie was four days old we were in our Ped's office.  I said, there
is something wrong with her eyes.  He said I was wrong, it was "false
strabismus," I was a worried new mother.  I put down my own instincts
and believed him.  He said if I still felt there was a problem at 2
months he would refer to ped. opt.  We were in his office on her 2 month
birthday and it took four weeks to get to the pediatric ophthalmologist
(had to go through a reg. ophthalmologist, by that time I had done some
research and knew to go to the specialist.)  The first thing out of this
wonderful doctor's mouth was "oh, why didn't I see this child at birth,
we might have saved some of her binocular vision."  We still see her eye
doctor, and she's had five surgeries over the last nine years and her
eyes will never be normal.  She has delay in gross and fine motor skills
as a result of her eye issues, although fortunately it doesn't effect
her reading and cognitively she's way intelligent, and of course she's
sweet and compassionate and knows more about breastfeeding than the
average pediatrician.  But I still think--if I had only insisted, if I
had only trusted myself, my instincts, I was this child's mother and I
knew and I let some MD (minor deity) tell me I didn't know. Could we
have saved some of her vision?  Would her life be different if she had
been seen by the specialist at birth?  Why didn't I trust myself, why
did I trust the doc?

It never happened again.  I don't trust doctors.  I found a nurse
pediatrician who treats me as an equal and who loves my children.
Recently when my five year old had ovarian cysts (and all the symptoms
(premature puberty, she even menstruated)) my NP ignored the
pediatrician and got us to the specialist within two days so we were
able to determine that it was cysts disolving.  If we had waited a few
weeks, as the ped wanted to, the cysts would have been gone and we would
have not known it was a cyst and we would have had to go through other
tests to rule out other causes of the symptoms, like a brain scan as
pituitary cancer can cause these symptoms.  My NP trusted my instincts
that we needed to act quickly and we got the blood work and Ultrasound
that diagnosed the cyst.

I am the expert on my children, on their bodies and their health.  I am
the expert on my health, on my body.  Doctors are people who have
training and whom I hire to help me make informed decisions, but
ultimately I am the expert.  I always remember this.

I know we have wonderful MDs on this list, and I know there are great
doctors (Lexie's eye doctor and Janene's pediatric endocronolgist are
two of them) out there who listen to their patients, and their moms and
dads, and who act in a partnership role.  To them, I have nothing but
respect.  But I never forget that doctors don't know everything, and
they can be wrong.

Sorry this is so long, but it's a hot issue with me.  I think it's so
sad when I work with moms who don't trust themselves, and trust a
stranger more.  If there is anything I want a mom to go away with, it's
the idea that she is her baby's expert, that she needs to trust herself
as a mommy.

Joylyn

>

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