Informed Choices means you also have the right to refuse

It has been really helpful being pregnant as I delve deeper into my commitment to empower women with knowledge of their choices in childbirth. Because friends as well as strangers share their experiences with me and it has given me such wonderful insight into the beliefs that we hold about our pre-natal care.

I went to have a particular screening done this morning, and when I went to the OB at my HMO for a referral, she pulled up my ID on her computer, noticed that I was 20 weeks and said, "You also need the ___ test." (I'm not sharing specific information about which tests because I don't want to create any biases based on my own choices.) Mind you, this woman had seen me once when I first joined the HMO and went for my first pre-natal appointment in this country. And she didn't even have my medical history because I still haven't managed to have my charts from the US brought over here. The only information she had was how many weeks pregnant I was.

We take it for granted that what is offered to us and presented as "routine" is also necessary for every patient. The truth is that this is not the case. Care providers are required to offer you all the screenings that are available in pregnancy. Some may have a policy to require many or all of them in their practice. They certainly get paid for every screening they perform. And valuable information can be gleaned from each one.

However - very big however!! - it is extremely important for each one of us, as individuals, to realize that there are risks and benefits to each one of the pre-natal tests. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the risks but sometimes the opposite is true! Sometimes a woman who has absolutely no risk factors is offered an amnioscentescis, and because it is presented to her as routine for the practice, she goes ahead and has this invasive procedure done. One of the risks of amnioscentesis is miscarraige!! Now, certainly, if a pregnancy has specific risk factors for certain birth defects or genetic diseases an amnioscentesis can give the mother and her care provider valuable information about how to proceed with the pregnancy. And in some cases, risking a miscarraige is worth the benefit of knowing the genetic details of the fetus.

BUT, if you were offered this screening without you being in any of the risk categories for the information the test provides, and you knew that there was a even a small chance that you could lose your baby - would you do it?

If you knew the risks, if you had the truth, the unbiased information about the benefits and risks of each pre-natal test then you could choose which tests to have and which to decline.

If you had the information and still weren't sure, you could discuss your options with your care provider and be able to understand and process her answers and come to an informed decision.

What would you give to have that information clearly explained to you, not just on paper, but on a live forum where you would be able to interact in realtime, ask specific questions and have them answered ON THE SPOT by knowledgable, caring, experts who's only interest is to help women make the right choices for their care?

Join me on Sunday night, April 5th at 8pm EST for a FREE teleclass called, "Testing, Testing, 123! Your Guide to Prenatal Tests"

In this call you will get:

• an overview of the pre-natal tests that are offered and their purposes.
• risks vs. benefits for various tests
• a description of patient rights in the US
• and a special invitation to have access to an exclusive program that will open up the information of pregnancy and birth in a way that has never been available before!
  

Register here to reserve your spot on the call!