Decisions about YOUR body shouldn’t be shared.

The term "shared decision making" says women are incapable of weighing their options, doing their research, listening to their intuition, and coming to their own conclusions.

It’s your body. It's YOUR choice.

Will others have opinions? Of course.

Should you consider those opinions when making YOUR decisions? Sure.

But the decisions are ultimately up to you. Everyone else is just an advisor.

A shared decision can only occur when each person has equal stake in the game, and only YOU have to truly live with what happens to your mind & body as a result of the choices made during pregnancy/birth/postpartum.

You and your doctor are not equally invested in what happens to your body, and how that affects you and your family in the future.

Once you leave the hospital you’re on your own until your 6 week postpartum visit, which is basically to “clear” you for sex and exercise. And then you’re on your own again.

Does that sound like a system that truly cares about what happens to your body?

YOU are the one who has to live with constant back pain or numbness from a botched epidural, not them.

YOU are the one who has a higher chance of hemorrhage every time you have a c-section out of routine, not them.

YOU are the one who has a higher risk of postpartum mood disorder if you are given Pitocin to induce labor, not them.

Shared decision making has no place in maternity care. The decisions are YOURS.