Mother's Workplace Discrimination in Medicine and Industry

It’s a sad reality that, at present in the U.S., women face workplace bias when it comes to pregnancy and caring for their babies.

On 12 December, 2018, there was a sobering article in the British Medical Journal:

Physician mothers’ experience of workplace discrimination: a qualitative analysis by Meghan C Halley and colleagues.  Link.

and on December 21, a similar piece appeared in the NY Times:

Planned Parenthood Is Accused of Mistreating Pregnant Employees:

Employers that champion women face accusations of discriminating against their pregnant workers, showing how widespread the problem is in American workplaces. Link.

 We are sure that women reading this post will have stories of their own.  Please feel free to comment. 

Note: "The United States, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, and a few island countries in the Pacific Ocean are the only countries in the United Nations that do not require employers to provide paid time off for new parents." Wikipedia

Beware of Dr. Google

Haider Warraich, NY Times, December 17, 2018  Full Article

It appears that “fake news” isn’t restricted to the political realm. In a New York Times Op-Ed essay, cardiologist Haider Warraich discusses the alarmingly high amounts of false medical information on the internet. He describes how this deceptive material (which stands out through eye-catching titles and dramatic claims) often emphasizes the often very small potential risks of evidence-based medicine, dissuading individuals from taking needed medications and receiving vaccines. Patients will continue to search for health information on the internet as doing so is rapid, cheap, and anonymous. But how do we ensure that they are presented with accurate material?  -- Benjamin Wipper.

Haider writes:
"While misinformation has been the object of great attention in politics, medical misinformation might have an even greater body count. As is true with fake news in general, medical lies tend to spread further than truths on the internet — and they have very real repercussions." Full Article

Unnatural Childbirth in America

Two recent reports highlight some of the challenges women currently have at the time of delivery.

1.  While many, perhaps most, women prefer natural child birth; the reality is that in many parts of the United States the C-section rate hovers at or above 50%.  Why NY Lags So Far Behind in Natural Childbirth (NY Times 11/20/18) is a comprehensive discussion of this subject.

2. VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarian) has been touted for at least thirty years.  NPR had an interesting segment devoted to this topic recently: Twin's Difficult Birth Put A Project Designed To Reduce C-Sections To The Test.

Amy Sosne, M.D., a physician and mother, comments both of these pieces.