Should Doctors Warn Pregnant Women about Environmental Risks?
Many doctors don't warn pregnant women about precautions they need to take while pregnant, such as avoiding certain types of fish and household cleaners. In a national survey of 2600 obstetricians and gynecologists, the majority of them didn't warn their pregnant patients about things that may harm their baby. Almost all of them discussed smoking and alcohol, but only 12% discussed to them about air pollution. Many of them justify this by not wanting to add stress to the patient and make them more worried than they already are. In a test, 43 different pregnant women were found with chemicals that could harm the baby's development.
I don't really expect doctors to talk about literally every single thing that could harm their baby, but they should still be informed about things like BPA and PCBs. It's kind of ridiculous to say they are told this because it may cause the patient stress. Not telling them may cause their child to have problems developing, so it's clear what's the better choice. It's really unfortunate that there are things that can harm a baby before it's born, which is why we should be trying to prevent as many bad cases as possible by spreading information to these women.
I don't really expect doctors to talk about literally every single thing that could harm their baby, but they should still be informed about things like BPA and PCBs. It's kind of ridiculous to say they are told this because it may cause the patient stress. Not telling them may cause their child to have problems developing, so it's clear what's the better choice. It's really unfortunate that there are things that can harm a baby before it's born, which is why we should be trying to prevent as many bad cases as possible by spreading information to these women.