Response to Hannah's Post

In the Article by Atul Gawande I was intrigued specifically by the question of whether medicine is a craft or an industry. It is sad to see how medicine has gotten corrupted and has turned into an industry. Doctors are no longer concerned with trying to master the art of facilitating the chances for children to come out through natural means because there are they are too busy trying to increase their prestige turning out higher numbers of healthy babies and that is through C-Section. Today when doctors encounter a problem during the childbirth process, these seek c-section automatically because it is the easiest procedure with fewer risks for the baby. Caesarian has now become the most reliable option that produces effective results. This has definitely become an industry because not only are the rates of child birth in a year getting higher thus more prestige for the hospitals, but also doctors are getting paid more as well as supported by the author when she says that “Skeptics have noted that Caesarean delivery is suspiciously convenient for obstetrician’s schedules and, hour for hour, is paid more handsomely than vaginal births” (10). Also another problem with this medicine industry is that because of the Apgar score, doctors and hospitals are mainly focusing on the numbers from this Apgar score which only reveal the health level of the child, but then they completely ignore the mother’s health. The mothers that undergo Caesarean take longer to recover than thus that reproduce in a natural way through the vaginal passage. Doctors are only worried about popping the babies out as fast as possible in order to get more patients, but some completely disregard the after effects that this easy-solution surgery like Caesarean have on the mother. Her recovery is more painful because she has to recuperate from the stitches and in some cases may be at risk of infection or tearing the wound open again if the mother does not take care of herself correctly. The field of medicine has unfortunately become an industry which thus corrupts many doctors by motivating them to get higher result thus it no longer becomes an issue of perfecting the craft, but instead of reliability.