Expecting Trouble : What Expectant Parents Should Know About Prenatal Care in America

In this controversial volume, Dr. Strong dispels widespread misconceptions about the effectiveness of prenatal care in its current form and explains how mothers themselves may influence the course and outcome of their pregnancies to a greater degree than do their obstetricians. He provides specific questions that parents should be asking their health care providers to ensure that they and their babies receive the best care possible. Prenatal care in America does not work and much of it lacks a solid scientific base. We spend more for it and provide more of it than any other nation on earth. Yet in return our prematurity and low birthweight rates are among the worst in the world.So argues Thomas H. Strong, Jr., a second generation obstetrician whose entire professional career has centered around prenatal care. Expecting Trouble calls into question many of the prevailing assumptions which have driven our country's maternity healthcare for decades.While the general understanding of prenatal care as crucial to the wellbeing of mothers and their babies is now enshrined in American culture, Strong draws upon scientific research to show that few procedures are actually as helpful as we imagine. Much of what passes for prenatal care is unduly expensive, unnecessarily high-tech, and surprisingly unsupported by medical research. New -- and unproven -- technologies are adopted by obstetricians seeking to appear "cutting-edge" in order to attract patients while procedures which could potentially detect problems, such as ultrasound, have taken on the status of fads, becoming virtually ubiquitous in obstetricians' offices rather than remaining in the hands of those specialists who have extensive and proper training.Strong dispels widespread misconceptions about the effectiveness of prenatal care in its current form and explains ways in which mothers themselves can affect their pregnancy outcomes to a greater degree than their obstetricians.Expecting Trouble exposes the glaring deficiencies of American prenatal care and outlines what can be done to remedy it. In addition, it provides specific questions that parentsshould be asking their health care providers to ensure that they and their babies receive the best care possible. Expecting Trouble Calls Into Question Many Of The Prevailing Assumptions Which Have Driven Our Country's Maternity Healthcare For Decades. Strong Dispels Widespread Misconceptions About The Effectiveness Of Prenatal Care In Its Current Form And Explains How Mothers Themselves May Influence The Course And Outcome Of Their Pregnancy To A Greater Degree Than Do Their Obstetricians. In Addition, He Addresses Larger Policy Issues Concerning Women's Health, The Ramifications Of Increased Malpractice Suits And Of Managed Care For Expectant Mothers, And The Dangers Of Financial Motivations Which Can Lead Hospitals To Retain High-risk Babies For Whom They Have Inadequate Facilities. Expecting Trouble Details The Most Glaring Deficiencies Of American Prenatal Care And Outlines What Can Be Done To Remedy Them. In Addition, It Provides Specific Questions That Parents Should Be Asking Their Health Care Providers To Ensure That They And Their Babies Receive The Best Care Possible.--book Jacket. 1. Heresy: Sowing The Seeds Of Change -- 2. Basis Of Prenatal Care -- 3. Money -- 4. Stakeholders -- 5. Chicken Or The Egg? -- 6. Thin Line. Thomas H. Strong, Jr.. Includes Bibliographical References (p.195-234) And Index. The growing availability of unprecedented reproductive technologies has raised equally unprecedented moral and political questions, not only for pregnant women but for all those who wish the state to act humanely and wisely in this extraordinarily sensitive arena. In this timely and provocative volume a group of distinguished feminist scholars explore the ethics and the politics of issues such as surrogacy, genetic testing, in utero surgery, genetic intervention, in vitro fertilization, and fetal endangerment. Expecting Trouble is essential reading for scholars and students of women and politics, women and public policy, sexual ethics, and medical ethics. EXPECTING TROUBLE......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1. Heresy: Sowing the Seeds of Change......Page 12 2. The Basis of Prenatal Care......Page 44 3. Money......Page 69 4. The Stakeholders......Page 93 5. The Chicken or the Egg?......Page 155 6. A Thin Line......Page 199 Notes......Page 206 Index......Page 246 About the Author......Page 254