"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke, 18th century Philospher.


"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of it being right." Thomas Paine


"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." Albert Camus

"Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose." Margaret Thatcher, March 14, 1977

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair



Explaining the Cause

I am a practicing obstetrician who is a strong supporter of patients rights to informed consent and refusal. I believe a patient has the right to choose her own path given true and not skewed informed consent. Following that tenet, just as a woman should be able to choose to have an elective c/section she should be able to choose not to have one, as well. The American system of hospital based obstetric practice has been eroding those choices for women for quite some time. Due to concerns of economics, expediency and fears of litigation women are being coerced to make choices that may not be in their best interest.

I have had a long relationship collaborating with midwives and find the midwifery model of care to be evidenced based and successful. I was well trained at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the mid 80's to perform breech deliveries, twin deliveries, operative vaginal deliveries and VBACs, and despite evidence supporting their continued value, hospitals are "banning" these options. Organized medicine is also doing its best to restrict the availability of access to midwives.

Home birthing is not for everyone but informed choice is. Medical ethics dictates that doctors have a responsibility and a fiduciary duty to their patients to provide true, not skewed, informed consent and to respect patient autonomy in decision making. Countries with the best outcomes in birthing have collaboration between doctors and midwives. This is not what has been happening in the hospitals of America. Its time for a change and the return of common sense.

The midwifery model of care supports pregnancy as a normal function of the female body and gives a legitimate and reasonable alternative to the over-medicalized model of birth that dominates our culture. Through this blog I hope to do my part to illuminate what is wrong with our maternity care system and what is right with it. I do not expect all to agree and that is OK. We must all understand that given honest data it is not always reasonable to expect two people to come to the same conclusion. Our differences should be respected.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Time to upgrade!

Greetings to all of you who have loyally supported me on this blog and at supportdfischbein.com. I was encouraged by so many of you to modernize and consolidate a lot of my internet activities and I finally listened. I plan to continue blogging on relevant topics and entertain and inform on
Dr Stu's podcast as well as post all sorts of events and news on my new Facebook page. Of course, the Fearless Pregnancy site where you can purchase my book is still there, too. All of these are linked through my completely revamp web site, Birthing Instincts with Dr. Stu, where you can read and learn about home birthing options including VBAC, breech and twin deliveries. There is also a current events page which lists upcoming seminars and lectures and gatherings. I am still at 3 locations including my Century City office, my Thousand Oaks office and the Sanctuary Birth and Family Wellness Center. Please check out all these sites and give them likes and stars and shares. According to my web guru, Renee, this blog site will remain up but future blogs and such will be posted on the new web site. See you over there. Warmly Dr. Stu




Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)