View Single Post
Old 05-05-2005, 07:23 AM   #38 (permalink)
uncle_el
Crazy
 
Location: n hollywood, ca
Quote:
Originally Posted by matthew330
"Her hips are not yet widened enough to safely pass a child, her body overall has not strengthened to the point where she can handle the stress of carrying the child or delivering it."

Perhaps with any luck evolution will catch up and women won't biologically be able to conceive untill their old enough to vote.

" Do you really know the scope of importance that proper nutrition (esp calcium and folic acid) has during pregnancy?"

you've done a good job of enlightening me tonight. You've already identified potential risks, identified excellent measures to keep these risks to a minimum. In the event one happens, i'm sure the "modern" medical community will think of something. About the easiest medical adventure i've seen. You've single handedly almost eliminated the need for 'em.

( i misspoke when i said treatable...i meant preventable, but the complications when they do arise are treatable, easy or not -and the same can't be said for complications with abortion - which is why i'm not buying your argument that this is a major concern of yours)
as i graduate from medical school in 1 week, i'll go ahead and call myself a medical professional.

i'd say at a minimum, abortion and a full term pregnancy followed with a delivery have the same risks. at worse, i would say that a full term pregnancy followed by delivery is more dangerous.

risks of abortion: missed/incomplete abortion (leaving behind fetal parts), infection, sepsis, uterine tear. having been present for a few abortions on my ob/gyn rotation, and seeing women in clinic and otherwise who had abortions in the past, the only real risk i saw was with medical abortions (they don't always work, and the lady ends up needing to get a surgical abortion).

risks of pregnancy: preeclampsia (hypertension, protein in the urine, edema), eclampsia (throw in seizures), gestational diabetes, infection, prolapsed uterus, iron deficiency anemia

risks of delivery: vaginal tears, uterine rupture, need to go to c-section (which has an increased risk of uterine rupture), infection, sepsis.

there may have been some risks i missed in pregnancy and delivery. and i also didn't mention the potential outcome of these risks on the baby at delivery either. add to that, many of the risks of pregnancy (those outside of infection and a prolapsed uterus) end up portending an outcome later in life (gestational diabtes begets diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia begets hypertension/high blood pressure, iron deficiency anemia begets itself).

the risks of both abortion and pregnancy are real. neither one is an easy decision. both can have, in worst case scenario, horrible outcomes. but in the "real world", i've seen worse outcomes with pregnancy and delivery. that's not to say that women shouldn't go through pregnancy and delivery, but i think it's potentially a more difficult course, and a much more complicated biologic process then many people like to think or believe.











edit: another interesting note is the mother of the 13 year old has been on the news (at least here in the south) saying that she doesn't want the girl to have the abortion, and is going to scrape together the money to get a lawyer to get it stopped. strange, since the girl is no longer in her custody, but also shows how sad the girl's situation is.


as far as the adoption angle, i suppose the baby, if she decided to have it, could be adopted. but damn, the potential 13 year old mother is still of an adoptable age as well! but most studies show that children after the age of 4 or 5 are very difficult to adopt out.


if you're against abortion, i respect that. but realize that at the end of the day, the state will be paying for whatever transpires either way, be it abortion, or pregnancy, delivery, and potentially 2 children in "the system".
__________________
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of inprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. - Malcolm X

Last edited by uncle_el; 05-05-2005 at 07:28 AM..
uncle_el is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360