They were minimal with their explanations because they're sick of arguing with people and getting yelled at about it. You can have an incredible rapport with a patient until you ask them those questions and then it completely eliminates the rapport you have developed if they don't plan to vaccinate or provide vitamin K and they become super militant and political about it. It jut destroys the therapeutic relationship and honestly most people I work with are just over it.
And that's if you work with nurses who believe in evidence-based medicine and aren't undermining your recommendations as soon as you step out of the room which is, uh, not guaranteed.
By the time a patient has their baby people have already dug their feet in about what they plan to do with vaccines and vitamin K and erythromycin eye ointment and we just don't have the time or the energy to argue about it anymore or fight the misinformation they got off TikTok and trust far more than me, their doctor.
The giant toddlers melting down about these things have worn many people in OBGYN and pediatrics down, they've won by being the loudest most obnoxious and unpleasant people to deal with. Part of the reason I don't do clinic anymore is because I just can't talk to patients about the recommended vaccinations in pregnancy anymore.
I will not be yelled at about RNA and DNA and have accusations of being a pharmaceutical shill hurled at me by people who have the health literacy of a banana and can't even tell me what the difference between a virus and a bacterium is. I just can't do it anymore.
I don't even wanna know what their plans are when I deliver them because it biases me against them. It's a bias I recognize and have to actively fight against and so I would rather just believe 100% of my patients are getting their babies vaccinated and medicated appropriately.
I would rather not know if the baby I just helped them safely deliver is gonna be medically neglected for the rest of their entire life until they eventually die in wars over water.
I've just opted out of that particular part of being a doctor. I can't do it anymore.
And the oral form of vitamin K is offered because adults are so immature about getting a shot that we developed that as a shitty compromise because god forbid someone get an injection ever.
People will accept CPR and intubation, ECMO, open heart surgery, futile cancer treatments, etc. but apparently getting a shot in your arm or leg is the worst form of medical violence imaginable. That's the world we live in now, so oral solutions that don't work as well are our best compromise to negotiate with the most health illiterate and emotionally immature people who are somehow now getting to drive all of our public health initiatives.
