Self-education is essential

Diana at Birthing at Home in Arizona has a nice post up about why you need to self-education (and self-advocate!) in health care. She has a great list of examples of having to do this during her pregnancy. I am often surprised by how willing people are to accept whatever a healthcare professional says. Midwives, doctors, nurses...they're all humans, who can make errors, forget something, or make assumptions, and who can only hold so much knowledge in their heads at one time. We all need to be the experts on our own health in order to best work with care providers!