perelgut (05/02/83)
Do you prefer (think you'd prefer) going to a doctor who has been in practice for: a) more than 30 years b) 20-30 years c) 10-20 years d) 1-10 years e) less than a year. What I am getting at is whether you prefer a doctor with lots of experience who may be getting old, a doctor fresh out of medical school who lacks experience but understands most of the latest advances, or some choice in the middle ground. Personally I feel the middle-ground is the worst since you get a doctor with less experience and with a marginally out-of-date background. Since my "Significant Other" is a journalist who wrote her Bachelor's thesis on the unneces- sarily high rate of Caesarean sections in North America, I have come across one extremely good argument for the older, experienced doctor. New graduates are taught all about fetal-monitors and modern surgical techniques and tend to treat pregnancy as an abnormal condition akin to a disease. Very few of them seem to know how to handle a simple forceps delivery. In fact, it is not a prerequisite to graduate as an OB to know how to use forceps. One reason is that they may mark the baby's head and doctors want to deliver a per- fect specimen. Older doctors are trained in forceps delivery and tend to use it instead of surgery. In fact, my "S.O." has chosen the doctor who delivered her as her OB/gyn. Young doctors seem to be trained in treating everything as a disease and have a reputation for promoting surgery un- necessarily. I recommend that you read (with a grain of disbelief) "Confession of a Medical Heretic". Reply to the above question (sorry for the extended length of the article) to me directly and I will post results if there is enough interest. --- Stephen Perelgut --- {decvax!utzoo,ihnp4,uw-beaver,ubc-vision}!utcsrgv!perelgut