Having Babies: Yesterday and Today

Someone close to us recently took her 7-month old baby daughter to the pediatrician, and was told that the baby had not gained enough weight according to some chart, so she’s going to have to undergo some tests.  Needless to say, the baby’s mother was a bit perturbed, and naturally worries about what could be wrong.  To the rest of us, the baby is an adorable baby girl, growing up just right… and healthy.

Another time, someone else close to us underwent some prenatal tests which apparently resulted in some numbers that were disturbing.  Supposedly the unborn baby had an “X or Y” chance of having birth defects.  Once again, this resulted in stress on both the unborn baby’s parents.  The baby was born years ago, and is perfectly normal.

Real life stories that get repeated time and time again in today’s modern prenatal and postnatal world.  As in many other fields, progress and technology bring many good things… but also bring some bad ones. 

Back when my wife and I were having kids, there were no “gender reveal parties.”  We found out the gender when the baby was born.  There was no one sticking needles in my wife’s abdomen, extracting fluids, or collecting tissue samples.  Pregnancies were closely monitored, but without intrusion… ensuring the mother’s health and the health of the fetus. 

Now, it seems pregnancies are full of probing, fluid extractions, genetic screenings, DNA testing, and whatever else you can think of.  I found an excellent article about this on the Internet: “Prenatal Genetic Screening Tests: Benefits & Risks.”  An interesting excerpt from this article reads as follows:

“Another disadvantage is that genetic screenings can give false positive results, meaning they can be wrong and lead expectant parents to believe their unborn babies might have genetic abnormalities when they do not.”

My point?  We live in an age of too much information.  Medical advances are all well and good.  But one has to ask what is the point to all this excessive probing and testing.  After a certain point in the pregnancy, the baby is going to be born regardless.  So what on Earth is the point in stressing out the mother (and father) with test results that nothing can be done about anyway?  Especially when you consider the excerpt above, where some test results show a false positive.  To me, it’s ridiculous. 

“Gender reveal parties”… great.  Advances in car seats and strollers… fantastic.  Back in my day you could pick up a rudimentary stroller for under $100.  Nowadays these things come with shock absorbers, endless holders and compartments, one-button foldup and storage… probably soon coming with Bluetooth, wireless speakers, automatic rockers, and espresso machines.  I’m sure there are strollers that now run well into the thousands of dollars.

Baby toys and mobiles have come a long way.  Baby “month-days” are now celebrated with month blocks next to them… and there are cameras and social mediums galore to celebrate and share baby’s every little burp. 

But now everything is under a microscope.  We don’t let the poor babies develop normally and individually anymore.  Everything is charted, plotted, studied, prodded, and scrutinized to the nth degree.  Why?  My own mother didn’t undergo genetic screening tests during her four pregnancies, and thank God we were all born normally and managed to develop into happy, productive adults with children and grandchildren of our own.

I don’t want to go to the business side of things, but it is a bit tempting to do so.  Medical costs aren’t getting any cheaper, and medical insurance is an ever-growing nuisance, to be discussed fully in a future article.  It seems we are finding new things to probe for on a daily basis.  At what point do we let things settle, and let nature take its course with mom and baby?

It’s a good question to ask.