Julie

“The second reason caregivers may be silent about the dark side of epidurals is that they generate big bucks for anesthesiologists and hospitals. Epidural charges range from $500 to $2500. A hospital consultant explained to me that hospitals have to maintain staff anesthesiologists around the clock to handle obstetric emergencies. In order for these doctors to make what they consider an adequate income, the hospital has to maintain something like an 80 percent epidural rate. Given this, how strongly do you think medical staff would resist the notion that epidurals are not always a good thing and most women can cope without them?”
― Henci Goer

“Of course, if 40% of women need oxytocin to progress normally, then something is wrong with the definition of normal.”
― Henci Goer, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities: A Guide to the Medical Literature

“You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration. ”
― Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword

“Oh, why does compassion weaken us?'

It doesn't, really ... Somewhere where it all balances out - don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live? - if we could go there, you could see it doesn't. It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him.”
― Robin McKinley, Spindle's End