Physicians may and should make recommendations to women for maintaining a healthy pregnancy, but until the time a baby is born, the pregnant woman alone should have the last word in deciding what happens to her fetus.
Invoking one’s medical training when presenting an opinion on a topic about which one has no expertise is simply cloaking personal one’s views in the mantle of respectability that being a doctor provides.
Unless we build bridges between our clinical work with patients and the public health mission that Virchow prescribed for us, we are doomed to futility in our efforts to help our patients.
Industrialized nations could benefit from strategies emerging in developing nations such as respectful collaboration between traditional out-of-hospital birthing practices and maternity units in partnering hospitals.