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Comment by erik_landerholm | Hacker News Reader

We have four children. Without modern medicine I have one child and no wife, most likely. I’m not sure i believe in God, but modern medicine and the ability to afford it is a godsend. Pregnancy is truly terrifying for all involved.

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There are two sides to this medal, modern medicine also brought us hyper procedural deliveries in hospitals that can result in a terrible experience for healthy women. My 1st child was born in a hospital in north America. When the contractions were not happening close enough fast enough we were strongly advise to start chemical induction - stress of the mother increases - something is not going as excepted - chemical induction is a lot more painful, lead my wife to ask for an epidural 3 hours later. More stress, pushing becomes very hard and ineffective. Once the contractions are close enough, the mother is asked to lay on her back, which drastically limit the movement of the pelvic bone - making delivery harder. At that point she slowly ends up in the zone where the delivery has to happen NOW, leading to episiotomy and use of forceps. For our 2 other children my wife went with a midwife in a Home Birth, the midwife provided everything modern medicine has to offer, if at some point she detects something risky the hospital takes over and she will accompany the mother to the hospital, if not the mother can decide to deliver in the Home Birth at home or at the hospital. In UK I read that hospitals are very much closer to Home Birth in the way they treat patients, I wish more hospitals start following that path and that Home Birth was accessible to more people. I don't believe the vast majority of deliveries should be treated like high risk from the start. We also need to recognize and address that a lot of misinformation is happening around birth.

plenty of people are not so lucky, modern medicine notwithstanding. its not god im thanking.

still much, much luckier than other generations. You could've been the King of England or Persia and you would have died from a simple infection that today is cured with pennies.

Sure, but thanking God for modern medicine is insulting to hard-working researchers and clinicians everywhere.

Ummm...if you believe in God, the idea is that he is to be thanked because thanks to him the scientists etc...

But in reality, the phrase has lost a lot of its original meaning. Still we need to be thankful, while we may nt get the Saudi Prince medical care, we still get a lot better care than Kings got 100 or so years ago. If I had a time machine and a few neosporins I'd be the richest man in the world. Plots of land in the middle of London and Paris for saving the King's life.

>Ummm...if you believe in God, the idea is that he is to be thanked because thanks to him the scientists etc...

I understand the reasoning, and it's still insulting. The people don't work any less hard if God exists.

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