Gut Feeling
There is something to be said for a woman’s intuition. I knew, in spite of all the medical evidence to the contrary (I’ll get to that “evidence” in a minute) that I would bring my daughter into the world without the help of a surgeon. When I did, at 8:06am on the 28th of August 2009, I was the only woman in Kingsbury Hospital who hadn’t give birth by cesarean section. Considering that there are 25 beds in the maternity ward, that’s saying something. Now I’m not telling you that as a boast, though I did feel a sense of pride at the time, especially as I had obstetricians popping in to my room all day to see the circus freak who’d birthed her equally freakishly unmaimed child without even a sniff of Pethadine. I just want to labour the point: my intuition topped the evidence.
Had it been up to me, I wouldn’t have even been in the hospital at all, but I’m married to a doctor. When you’re married to a medical professional the evidence is stacked against you. Evidence is not, as you might think, based on anything you might experience – that’s anecdotal evidence and anecdotal evidence is not scientific. Nor is anything you may have seen with your own eyes evidence – the old adage ‘seeing is believing’ does not apply. Evidence can only begin to be considered evidence once its been subjected to double-blind testing in a sterile laboratory under a rigorous set of conditions over a broad cross-section of the population. This double-blind-tested-etc-evidence then needs to be collated and published in a serious medical journal, but even then, it’s not acceptable. Only once its been given credence by the majority of the medical establishment, which only happens after several other laboratories test the evidence by the method stated above, does evidence fall from its little anecdotal perch into the realm of acceptable-by-a-medical-professional-fact.
When you have a child, your woman’s intuition is doubled and becomes something even stronger, mother’s intuition. Intuition, by definition, is the ability to understand something without the need for conscious reasoning. This most powerful intuition could, therefore, never fall into the category of evidence required by a medical professional. Most mothers have faced the eye-roll at the GP when you just know there’s something wrong with your kid. Imagine having to face that very same dismissive irritation from your husband, and you’ll begin to understand where I’m coming from. Which brings me to the reason for this post.
I know, when I look at the cracked, peeling, splitting toenails of my child, that she is deficient in something. My mother’s intuition tells me this. It says that normal toenails are smooth and strong and don’t curl under at the ends. My gut tells me this in spite of the fact (seen with my own eyes evidence, not the real sort of double-blind-evidence) that my husband’s toenails are the same. It also tells me that, should I take her along to a doctor, they’ll probably dismiss my concern with the don’t-waste-my-time-R360-eye-roll. So, based on previous positive experience, I take her to a naturopath. Without even the slightest quiver of her eyelid, the naturopath examines the offending toenails and gives me a list of symptoms which could arise from a malabsorption problem. Now, call me over-excitable but blow me down, doesn’t my husband suffer from every single one of these.
Luckily for my daughter, the answer to her not being able to wear pretty sandals is a simple one. Zinc. And, because I love him in spite of him being a stubborn-dyed-in-the-wool-doctor, I buy my husband a supplement too. I do this even though I know the minute I tell him, he’s going to do the eye-roll. I do this in spite of fact (anecdotal) that he won’t take them and I’ll have wasted my money and breath and will have been made to feel stupid for believing a quack. However, I don’t care, because I gave birth to our daughter without a surgeon when the double-blind-sterile-laboratory-tested-medical-evidence said that I wouldn’t be able to because of my size 3 feet.
Now, who are you going to believe?