Reason and the lack thereof.

Oh people. People, people, people why art thou so damned stupid? And why is stupidity directly proportional with the amount of airtime you require?

Oi! Sssshhh. That's so mean.

Anyway, that sweeping and rather vile (it's the hormones) generalisation is brought to you by virtue of me googling again.

You see I did a bad thing yesterday. I purchased and ate some Brie. I did google while in the supermarket and my Brie ticked all the boxes of being pasteurised and what not, and the risk of listeria is very low (still present due to mould) so I thought I'd go with it. Also, one supposedly gets listeriosis from deli meats, takeaway chicken, salads and, well that covers my diet pretty much.

I decided to risk it. I have faith in my body. I sincerely hope I don't live to regret this.

But the googling revealed the nutters.

Reason #1 why we should just go ahead and eat things we're not supposed to: our parents ate all sorts of stuff and we survived. Yes, people also survived asbestos and lead paint, but that doesn't mean it's safe.

Reason #2 why we should just eat what we like in moderation, with specific reference to cheese: French women eat them. The stillbirth rate in France is higher than here. Not much, but higher. Do we know if it's the cheese? No.

I do feel awffy guilty and every twinge is now listeriosis setting in.

I also found an interesting blog about pregnancy that discussed it. So I read some more, a quite interesting blog. Until I got to one where she bemoaned that women used to be involved in the birth process from an early age and so knew much more about it. Yet, *somehow* the birth process has moved from home to hospital and this has been lost.

Hello?

Home, tended by the women of the family. Where infant, and indeed maternal, morbidity was rife. Oh how wondrous the olden days were.

Hospital, that clinical place where doctors reside and mothers and babies survive. Modern day births without the extended family around and the child/mother/both surviving. How utterly, erm, good?

Why the mistrust of the medical profession? Why the hatred of actually being properly looked after? The obsession with "right", "womanly" and "natural" seems to override the safety aspect.

And that, dear imaginary reader, is what I consider stupid.