Why do patients like these go to a doctor?

[DutchgirlRN]

I'm watching a show about L&D. This couple was determined to have a natural delivery which is all fine and well. They want to go home 2 hours after delivery. The baby's temp is 100.8. The parents, especially the father is determined to go anyway (no insurance or money issues) just very fixated on natural everything. The father is insisting that the elevated temp is due to the baby being swaddled. The baby is rewrapped much lighter. The temp goes higher. The pediatrician orders IM antibiotics stat. The parents say no to the antibiotics. The father says "no drugs in my daughter, the whole point of this natural delivery was no medical intervention".

I want to reach through the screen and knock him in the head. Why not deliver at home all by yourself if you think you know everything? Then you won't have to worry about any medical intervention.

Why are people so stubborn and narrow-minded when they don't have any medical knowledge? I just don't get it. I understand wanting things natural but at the cost of the life of the child?

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

What if insurance private or government stopped paying for hospital births? What if you only could deliver in hospital if you could afford it or were high enough risk? Would that remove any status from a fully natural midwife guided birth?

I don't think that's anything we'll have to worry about in our lifetime or in the lifetime of our children. In Holland it's the norm to deliver at home and the abnorm to deliver in a hospital. Circumcisions are unheard of in Holland, here they are the norm but gradually becoming so. So who knows what the future will hold regarding home births in the USA.

I think people are too quick to reject medical intervention when they are in a position to reject it.

Now I think you're right on target!