OBjectivity

"The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

-Malcolm Forbes

I'm halfway through Spring block 1, waist-deep in the foreign world of Obstetrics and Labor and Delivery nursing.  I'm enjoying it more than I though I would, although there are some things about the culture of the environment that make me uneasy.

Clearly, there are ethical and moral dilemmas and questions in every field of medicine/nursing.  However, I find the lines of right and wrong and safe and just to be a little...mushy...in OB.  A large focus of our curriculum is to adjust delivery of care to patient preference including cultural and religious diversity.  But no other area of study has caused me to question my own values and feelings so much in order to provide patient care, because there are two patients instead of one. Decisions made by the mother and her family will affect the unborn child as well.

Some examples of the issues I am referring to are:  home birth, "lay" midwives, elective abortion, elective cesarean section, no prenatal care, prenatal genetic testing, illicit drug use and/or cigarette and alcohol use during pregnancy, homelessness during and after pregnancy...just to name a few. 

I have strong feelings about most of these things - as I'm sure you all do.  But what do you do with that?  How do you provide the necessary education to a patient without passing judgment on their decisions?  How do you care for a mother when all you want to do is shake her and say, "Are you crazy!?  Don't you know what you are doing to your child?"

Clearly, I have much to learn about objectivity.  Maybe OB nursing is not the field for me.