now here is a good birth analogy

It really is a case of studying the options and then deciding what risk/benefit weighing you feel most comfortable with. To use an analogy - most of us wear seatbelts in a car now, for safety reasons, even though we don't plan on getting in an accident. That's kind of like going to a hospital at all for birth. Then there are other safety-related things you can also use - front airbags, side window airbags, moving the seat as far back as is possible are some other now common ones. To be even safer, you could wear a helmet, possibly even some thick vests or suits that could make sure you don't get cut if the windshield ends up shattering. In some cases, though very rare, you'd probably be very glad to have those. But I personally wouldn't choose to wear the helmet or heavy suit - the small possible benefit wouldn't be enough for me to outweigh the other considerations, like the inconvenience of putting those on every time I was driving somewhere. In fact, it would probably make driving a bit harder, possibly even less safe if the gear interferes with your ability to see or react to road conditions. On the other hand, I recognize that there may be some situations where extra gear would be very recommended (like race car drivers, for instance), and I wouldn't look down on someone for trying to be extra cautious. But if I had a friend who did regularly suit up for a simple trip to the store, or even a drive to downtown Atlanta, I'd probably encourage her to take a real look at likelihood of the risks she's preparing against. If she then still wanted to go ahead and protect herself against those anyway, that's OK - it's her choice. But I'd want to be sure she was making it based on sound information.
- cassia beckman (fellow ICANer)