Public Health Post

Today Dr. Peralta was profiled in Boston University School of Public Health’s Public Health Post. She had the most fun talking about how she got into this work in the first place.

Public Health Post: What motivated your research focus on shared decision-making as it relates to pregnancy and maternal health?

Ann Peralta: When I was pregnant and past my due date, conversations about induction came up often. People would ask me, “Oh, when are you due? When’s your baby coming?” And I would say, “11 days ago.” And people who didn’t know me, like the barista or the ultrasound tech, would say things like, “Wow, how much longer are they going to let you go?” I think that “let you” language is this not-so-quiet piece of our culture that assumes that labor induction is not my decision.

We have this wider understanding that pregnant people aren’t entitled to make decisions about their pregnancy in the perinatal period. Once there’s a fetus, suddenly it’s not my body anymore in many aspects. But labor induction still is my decision. So shared decision-making and a decision aid seemed like a useful mechanism for focusing more on open conversations like, “Do you want this? Here’s why you might, and here’s why you might not.”