Googling during pregnancy can be a big bad scary activity. For sanity's sake, I encourage clients to avoid general googling of pregnancy topics at this time, or joining large forums. I do, however, encourage clients to become informed about birth, breastfeeding and parenting. How can you filter all this information? My favourite books and research resources are linked on my site, so that's a great place to start.
Read moreOn "Beyond Evidence: The Complexity of Maternity Care"
I must say that I've had a long-standing passion for Murray Enkin. I was first "introduced" to him in 1987, when he was an obstetrics professor at McMaster University, and was writing "A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth". His book became my "bible". The underlying thesis of the book is that evidence from well-controlled trials should encourage the adoption of useful measures and the abandonment of those that are useless or harmful. The full text of the 2000 Edition is available online, courtesy of the authors!
Dr. Enkin's insightful comments in the "Guide" made me respect his judgment. His pragmatic review of the research helped to guide me in my role as a doula. I would photocopy pages of the book to give to clients, to help them negotiate the best care during pregnancy. Over the years, I have always checked in on his current research, and tried to follow his teachings.
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