Last week my book, Expecting Better, was published. It’s a data-driven look at pregnancy in which I take my training, in economics, to look at many of the decisions and rules that come up while pregnant. With a few exceptions (don’t smoke!) the book doesn’t make any real recommendations. What it does do is outline the data and decision process women could use to make decisions for themselves.
In the week or so since my book has come out, one of the most common pieces of criticism I’ve gotten—though, surprisingly, usually not from doctors themselves—is that doctors know best. Pregnant women, and patients in general, should just do what their doctor says, the refrain goes. He or she is the expert.
Unfortunately, this attitude misses the point. There is often significant disagreement among doctor—not to mention between individual doctors and national or governmental recommendations. The simple rule of just doing want the doctor says will lead to quite different behavior depending on who that doctor is.
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