More on the preconception thing

The actual CDC guidlelines are here.

Now, I have seen it pointed out that the Washington Post spin on it makes it seem much more negative than it really appears. But after reading it I really can’t come to the same conclusion. It says in several places that even women who do not intend or wish to become pregnant should be given “preconception care”. Among one of the things listed as preconception care is reevaluating a woman’s medications – if they could cause birth defects, her medication must be changed! This is just one of the clear examples of how they are putting fetal health before a woman’s health, which is stupid in the long run even if it were not a disgusting dismissal of women’s individuality.

At the very beginning, the report states “The main goal of preconception care is to provide health promotion, screening, and interventions for women of reproductive age to reduce risk factors that might affect future pregnancies.” Right there you have it – whether or not you are pregnant, you have to get rid of all risk factors that might hurt a future fetus. And although it should be blatantly obvious what the real problem is in America that causes infant (and maternal!) mortality – lack of national health care and lack of a social safety net – their recommendations are smugly conservative, listing societal changes towards the end of their list and individual responsibility first:

The recommendations are 1 ) individual responsibility across the lifespan, 2 ) consumer awareness, 3 ) preventive visits 4 ) interventions for identified risks, 5 ) interconception care, 6 ) prepregnancy checkup, 7 ) health insurance coverage for women with low incomes, 8 ) public health programs and strategies, 9 ) research, and 10 ) monitoring improvements.

The report also repeatedly indicates throughtout that these guidleines are for ALL WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE, whether or not they intend to become pregnant. I fail to see how this is somehow okay. If a woman needs to take a drug for her health that could cause birth defects, should she be given a less effective drug just because she might possibly become pregnant? What if she is celibate? A lesbian? Using birth control and plans to have an abortion if she gets pregnant? Could a doctor not tell her, if the medication is that important, “Maybe you should consider not getitng pregnant because this medication is very good for you but could cause you to have a two-headed baby?” But no, the health of a woman’s possible future fetus is suposed to be the driving force behind any medication decisions a doctor makes for her.

Then there are the outright lies of our Puritan culture:

Alcohol misuse. No time during pregnancy is safe to drink alcohol, and harm can occur early, before a woman has realized that she is or might be pregnant. Fetal alcohol syndrome and other alcohol-related birth defects can be prevented if women cease intake of alcohol before conception.

There is zero, zilch, nada evidence that a drink or two during pregnancy will cause fetal alcohol syndrome. The FAS people get around this by saying “we haven’t determined any level that is safe!” Yet everywhere you look it is insisted that there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy. In the absence of actually having any children with FAS born to women who had a glass or two of wine during their pregnancies, they are now making mountains out of molehillls trying to find tiny differences in children’s behavior and saying “Aha! It is your fault because YOU DRANK DURING PREGNANCY!” It really isn’t true – once you get past their fear inducing hype such as ” If you drink, don’t have sex. If you have sex, don’t drink. Prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders!” you can’t find any studies actually proving that an occasional glass of wine will cause a deformed baby. Yet on the basis of what amounts to little more than scare tactics, they insist no woman of childbearing age should ever drink a glass of alcohol, ever.

So no, I don’t think this is a case of mistaken reporting. The medical establishment is just as misogynist as everything else in our society, they do have ample evidence of considering even potential, non-existent fetuses more important than women, and are willing to recommend incredible restrictions on women’s lives in order to benefit those non-existent fetuses. Even when a man’s preconception behavior is just as important as a woman’s, the medical world refuses to focus on his choices. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

Explore posts in the same categories: Women's Health