Hi Jennifer and Sam and others,

Sigh... I guess I still have to learn a lot about common practices surrounding birth in the US.
A 95% induction rate...?!?! I don't know what it is here (Gonneke, Heleen, do you have statistics available...?), but it sounds incredibly high and incredibly ridiculous, if I may say so... :-s
Child and mother should have the right to let the pregnancy last as long as nature has intended it. When people phone me on Sunday or other odd times and apologize, I always say that there baby doesn't know about day of the week, or time of the day. Shouldn't Ob's/Gyn's respect that in a mother...? Like others said: a cascade of problems can arise from premature birth, even at 38 weeks, if it were meant to be 41.
This, too, may have to do with the risk of being sued, which in itself (not only in health care, but in all areas of society) is a worriesome development.
It creates an atmosphere that says that life should always be perfect, in every aspect, and if not, someone should get the blame for it and pay.
Why aren't more lawyers sueing ABM producers, with all the nice statistics on morbidity at hand...? Yeah, well... why join the game, right?
We should get away from this way of thinking, I suppose, but I fully realize that transforming society is way out of my league. Or not...?
I have a certain saying in mind concerning this, but cannot remember whom it came from and haven't been able to track it down.
I started googling, thinking it might have come from Gandhi and found interesting, relevant quotes:
"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right."
Or we could stick with our role as lc educators, according to number 4. of our Standards of Practice: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." (Nelson Mandela)

Kindly,

Marianne Vanderveen, Netherlands

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