a different shade of gray

after watching "the business of birth" and hearing an interesting panel of "experts" field questions and debate over the topic of birth in america, i am left with thoughts. i wanted to say something but my fear of public speaking and a quivering voice kept me from speaking up. i usually dont get stage fright especially when talking about birth but there was a fellow who was a medical bioethicist (whom i have heard about and is super cool in my book) who i just really didnt want to chance looking like a jack ass in front of. but anyway back to the brain dump.

they seemed to talk in circles about the same old shit dr's bad, natural birth good, system fucked, our country's maternal and infant mortality are awful, blah blah blah. i dotn mean to be flip but it just is like two dogs chasing after eachothers tails. so my thoughts were-

1. if most births are attended by ob's then why are obs not being trained in natural birth and the art of doing nothing? (i know there is a liability answer in there but they do lack training in normal birth and nutrition for optimal pregnancy)

2. what about continuity of care from pregnancy, birth to postpartum?

3. education of options of care providers and consumers alike?

4. what about creating community round tables on the topics in birth and cross profession peer reviews? (i know there are egos in the answers to this one)

5. what about depolarizing the issue and coming together without blame or fear of the other? the only way to change is to hear each other out WITH RESPECT even if we disagree.

the far left and the far right in any situation annoy the shit out of me regarding their inability to see the entire picture. there are many of us in the gray and if we were able to come together regularly WITH RESPECT maybe we could get somewhere.