Sound advice

Gretchen's obstetrician is great--kind of an older guy with a really nice manner (truth be told, he's the first obstetrician I've ever met so I can't really compare, but we both like him so that's good enough for me). Whenever we ask him a question about anything, he loves to cite studies that have been published. If we ask, "should she be eating more fish?", he'll say "well, the New England Journal of Medicine says not really, but a British study said yes, and a study in Zurich said you should eat rösti instead." But he's not at all pompous or self-important about it--I think he just doesn't have the "I'm the doctor and I said so" attitude.

Anyway, that's a long way of getting to today. We were talking to him about our trip to Thailand--what to avoid (malaria, raw food and too much sun) and what not to worry about (all other food, swimming, boats). Half in jest, I asked him "what about riding on an elephant?" since I've read that elephant rides are quite popular there, although I wasn't expecting we would actually do it. He was quiet for a second, then said "There aren't any studies about riding elephants." Then he was quiet for another second and said "but there are studies in France of farm wives riding tractors and there was a higher incidence of premature delivery...so I wouldn't ride an elephant." The scary thing is that while he had a smile on his face when he said it, I think he was serious. I really wouldn't be surprised if he goes home this weekend and does some research just to see if there is a study out of India or someplace about the perils and/or benefits of riding an elephant while pregnant.