Nerd,
With respect, I understand why you are making the point you are making but it is misguided. Information to counter what you just wrote is very difficult to come upon especially if you aren't looking. And why would you look? One would like to believe that there are bad doctors and good doctors and you can sue the bad ones etc etc but it is far more complicated and incidious than that because when all is said and done it is primarily about money. period. Not about health women and babies. Unless you are personally confronted with an issue like this, you are probably oblivious to its existence, it is quite purposely buried by the media and there are so many things to uncover, so much information that is purposely kept from us, how could we manage to catch it all, so I am not attacking anyone just trying to put forth something that affects a lot of peoples lives but is buried under loads of political shit like everything else.

"These lawsuits were about people who were mentally and physically crippled because of bad doctors. Edwards helped sue those doctors and got big money for the victims."

This is the problem - the rate at which people are born mentally and physicaly crippled DOES NOT go down as the cesarian rate goes up. It has been proven again and again that cesarian section is not preventative against "injuries" like cerebral palsey the very things for which Edwards was helping to sue.

Edwards knew this, he knew he was particpating in something that would make things even more difficult for women and children to get proper medical care but he did it anyway because he was making lots of money. I KNOW FOR A FACT that he was privy to the same information as I and he completely disregarded it. It was not for the injured babies that he did that this, it was for money. The things I am saying here have been know for years and have been ignored for years and the reality is that the atmosphere for birthing women and their babies is getting worse and worse. Why do you think they made such a big deal about the mentally challenged, drug addicted woman who refuse to follow her doctors ADVICE and ended up with a dead baby? Have you heard the fact that the baby would have been dead whether or not a csection was done? Or just about the "lunatic" who dared not listen to the GOOD DOCTORS?

How would you define bad doctors? Would you define doctors who put their own financial security over the health and safety of their patients bad doctors? I would. That's what the huge majority of Obs are doing. They are working against the best interests of mothers and children. Their own college advocates procedures that are proven dangerous, sometimes extremely dangerous, to both mother and child simpy to ensure that they cannot be held accountable for any damage incured by mother or child.

They are also quite openly and aggressively SQUELCHING any alternative movement to help birthing women. Midwives have been all but driven into the woodwork even though time and time and time again they have had the same, and very often better, birth outcomes than doctors. And they do not perform cersarians. They are also completely OUTSIDE this total farce from which Edwards made his money. He pretended to channel the yet to be born baby in the court room He used a cartoon-like voice complete with sound effects. He is contemptible.

Snoop a little at Obgyn.net and the like to see where I'm coming from. It is immediately apparent whose interests these people are serving. Look at the International Cesarian Awareness Networks information page for more valid information if you want.

Selima