Doctors lack tools to discuss toxic exposures with pregnant patients: survey

[riky]

Doctors lack tools to discuss toxic exposures with pregnant patients: survey

By Shereen Lehman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obstetricians recognize that exposure to chemicals and metals can affect a pregnancy, but said in a new survey that they face barriers to counseling patients about environmental hazards. The first of its kind study found that U.S. obstetricians and gynecologists feel they lack the medical education and training, evidence-based guidelines and tools for communicating potential environmental risks to patients. “The main barrier is something the doctors in our focus groups called ‘Pandora's Box’,” Dr. Naomi Stotland, who led the study, told Reuters Health in an email. “They don't even want to approach this topic because they are afraid it will cause anxiety in pregnant patients and unleash a barrage of new questions and they won't have the answers to those questions,” said Stotland, an obstetrician and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Source: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login