Not really, but you should go and listen to this. You should not, however, do so on an emotionally fraught trip to visit an ailing family member, because you will sob uncontrollably in seat 9C for most of your transcontinental flight, which will make the impeccably groomed 20-something in 9D very uncomfortable. Theoretically speaking.
Regardless, it was beautifully done, I thought, in that it bypasses a lot of the unhelpful rhetoric, and did so with tremendous respects for all the options presented. I don't agree with absolutely all the counselling or medical management in this story, and I have some unresolved questions (why the cesarean? why?) but so very worth it.
I also felt like it followed me to work-- these are often the kids who keep me in business. I had a neat email chain with colleagues about their choice of family to follow and whether a family with a different outcome would have agreed to that level of scrutiny. All in all, I did think they presented lots of the dilemmas respectfully and complexly, which is saying a lot.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of similar thoughts... I also cried, especially when he was talking about not finishing the Harry Potter book. I also wondered why the cesarean - because the baby was breech? I see that given as the reason for a lot of preterm cesareans at work. What are your thoughts on that?
ReplyDeleteI too wondered about the choice of the happy ending story. Being a science podcast, I can see that it's partly about science and what it can do, and also how we negotiate the statistics as emotional human beings. All that was worth it, and it was wonderful for that family, but there is more complexity to the story of prematurity than can fit in that one hour...