In my OB clinicals, I have noticed the prevalence of the use of birth control. Today it struck me especially. I was in my patient’s room with the nurse midwife and interpreter (the patient spoke very little English) getting her ready for her discharge this afternoon. One of the things the midwife asked was if this patient had considered what kind of birth control she would like to use. The way the question was asked made me feel like no one but myself would consider the option of none. It struck me that in our health care system, it is assumed that all women who are post partum will go on some sort of birth control. I know as a nursing student that it is best for a woman not to get pregnant immediately after a birth, but there are natural ways to achieve this. Aside from any moral objections I might have to birth control, I find birth control odd. Healthcare is supposed to be about fixing bodily systems that are not functioning as they should. Things like pace makers to regulate the beating of a failing heart, or dialysis to augment toxin removal by damaged kidneys. But birth control does the opposite. It takes a system that is working exactly as it was intended to and messes it up. This doesn’t sound to me like something the healthcare professions should partake in. It pumps the body full of extra hormones and poses risks to other systems within that body. It just doesn’t make sense to me, even without taking into account the moral aspects of this so called medical treatment. I just wish people would at least take into account the validity of natural forms of birth control (that do not alter the functioning of the body) when these forms are taken seriously.
