Million-Dollar Babies
Posted on June 23, 2008
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The NY Times article about Infertility received a lot of hateful comments and even though I expected some people to post their opinions about a topic they know little about, I was still shocked at some of the words written.
I’m not sure if the IF article helped thicken my skin or I just decided to be bigger than the idiots posting about this article in the Business Week titled Million-Dollar Babies. There were many times I wanted to make a comment to some of those who know little about premature babies, but I refrained.
There are similarities to the infertility and premature birth crises:
1. Not everyone understands the desire to have a baby or to keep a premature baby alive. It’s the argument of Natural Selection. But the technology exists so God, if you believe in God or a higher Spirit, allowed us to create these technologies for this purpose - so we could have a child or keep one alive if need be. The same arguement can be made for heart medications or cancer treatments…
2. Both of these medical issues are expensive. Many couples spend their live savings or incur debt for the chance to become pregnant. The cost of caring for a premature baby is extremely expensive. The total bill for our twins 7 week NICU stay was over $500k.
3. The insurance argument. Those who know little about either of these issues believe that the individual, not insurance should foot the bill. If insurance companies covered IF treatment the occurrence of high-order gestation pregnancies would go down (studies prove this). Which in turn, would directly impact the amount spent on preemies in the NICU and any corresponding life-long treatments. The argument that I don’t understand, and I guess I just don’t know that much about insurance, is that the monies spent caring for premature babies could be spent in other places. Is this true? Are insurance companies really going to use their monies on individuals who are not members of their insurance plans? Is there a governmental insurance fund that insurance companies have to contribute to? I’m not sure I understand this argument, maybe I’m just as ignorant as the rest of these folks.
4. Both can be easily “cured” or “prevented” with proper change to diet or lifestyle. So many people think that if you change your diet you can reverse your infertility. We’ll, that’s not always the case. Sometimes there are actually medical conditions. On the same wave is the fact that premature births can be prevented, especially for non-multiple gestation pregnancies. One person made the comment that there was no reason for early births of single babies - I’m sure the March of Dimes would love to chat with this man to see what he knows, because obviously he know something their researchers don’t.
If you are in the IF world, know that your battle against the ignorant might not be over once you become pregnant, especially if you have twins or high-order multiples. Those going though IF treatment do have a slightly higher risk of delivering their baby premature, even with a singleton.
Creative Commons image courtesy of DoctorWho
» Filed Under Premature Births
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