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Expecting Trouble: The Myth of Prenatal Care in America
Expecting Trouble The Myth of Prenatal Care in America Author:Thomas H. Strong 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 car... more »eer 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 parents should be asking their health care providers to ensure that they and their babies receive the best care possible.« less