Saturday, May 3, 2008

What people know about health matters

I just read a post on the traveling midwife that left me with a few thoughts. The writer is a midwife and she had a minor brain fart (as I call them) and her client got upset. The situation was smoothed out and all is well. What it summoned to my mind was how little some people understand their body's and what happens to them. Working in the health field I assume most people have a level of general knowledge that they clearly don't.

Example: I was counselling a lady about a change in her brand of contraceptive pill. I emphasised that because it was a mini-pill she had to take it at the same time each day, or it could fail. She replied that that was ok. She had changed brands because she had two boys and wanted to get pregnant with a girl this time. Her friend told her brand X was better to get a girl.

Stand back now, which question should I address first? Where do you start with some one who knows so little about what's going on that she thinks changing her brand of contraceptive pill will change the sex of her baby.

I suspect her "friend" had told her this to stop her breeding.

2 comments:

slh35661 said...

Your episode with the mini pill cracked me up. You never know what a friend will say that someone will listen to over a provider who has been educated in the field.
As to how to rename your link: go to your Dashboard, then click on Layout. Next go to Links to my Favoirtes, click Edit. Then under Title you can rename it to what you like.
And, hey thanks for the note about my blog. I have just started blogging and don't know much about it except that it is fun. I never thought I'd write but look at me go...And I love the idea of reading blogs like yours (which I love by the way). FYI my site only has one "L" in it.
Keep up the good work.

Amanda said...

It's so true! Many people don't know about their own bodies. It's especially fun to teach guys about girl issues. They have no clue.