Giving Consent: Is Prenatal Care Safe & Beneficial?
In the next few articles, you will read about the many prenatal tests which are routinely administered to pregnant women in this country. It is frightening to me that so many tests are administered, and that each test carries its own dangerous side effects. But what is even more distressing to me is that women actually allow their bodies to be invaded repeatedly with these dangerous tests. Is it that they just don't know what the side effects are, or that the side effects are minimized so that the women are led to believe they don't happen frequently? Or is it just the fact that women still "do as they are told" rather than taking responsibility for their health and finding out about whether they really want these tests or not?
Whatever your
reason
for considering these tests, I hope you will do a lot of research that
will educate you. I hope that you will not allow anyone to scare
you into taking these tests if you don't want them. To read a
summary
of research studies done on each of the tests or treatments below, get
Henci Goer's great book (click on book to purchase):
A
Guide To The Medical Literature
Click on the
links
below to learn a little about each test:
The Dangers of Ultrasounds, sonograms, and dopplers
Can Anyone Trust The Alpha Fetoprotein Test?
The Glucose Tolerance Test: An Attempt to Pathologize A Normal Response
The Dangers of Chorionic Villus Sampling
Prenatal
Rhogam: A Complicated Choice
Back to The
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Back
to Do Your Own
Prenatal Care
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