Putting the informed in informed consent

I’m not a big fan of the FDA. I think they approve too many things that are not safe to use. I don’t think drug companies can be trusted, either. Generally, and history proves this time and time again, they’ll hide bad information to get a drug approved. But when BOTH the FDA and a manufacturer warn against using a medication for a specific use, trust me, we should LISTEN.

And I say this because pretty much every care provider in a 15 mile radius will lie and say it’s safe. It’s not. It’s just really, really cheap, and so effective it literally squeezes unborn children (and the uteruses that house them) to death in more cases than anyone would care to admit. The drug? Cytotec. Want proof? Here and here.

There are safer alternatives, like prostaglandins (ideally in a method that can be removed if either mother or baby don’t tolerate the treatment), but they are more expensive, and less ahem effective. But seriously? I think it’s time hospitals stop lying to moms (or, actually, just not informing them) and move on to the next crazy birth medicine.

This entry was posted on June 5, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Living la vida Lamaze, Soapbox anyone?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.