You may remember Gloria Lemay. She’s the Canadian lay midwife with no formal training who has learned nothing from presiding over a number of homebirth deaths. Now she has graced us with an obnoxious post entitled 7 Step Recipe for Creating an Autistic Child:
1.Allow ultrasound technicians to “date” your pregnancy, see if you have twins, check the growth of your baby. Even one ultrasound affects your baby’s brain. Multiple ultrasounds will move cells in the brain around and also affect future generations of your family.
2.Eat whatever you like in pregnancy. Don’t take the time and trouble to study the effects of over-processed, high fat diets. Don’t worry about buying organic produce and meat.
3.Let your physician induce you. Induction drugs over-ride Nature’s pace of the birth process. They cause prolonged periods of oxygen deprivation similar to holding a pillow over your child’s face. Any form of hurrying you into the birth process or, once into it, hurrying the process faster than it goes naturally will damage cells in the baby’s brain.
4.Take pain-killing drugs during your child’s birth. Every anesthetic goes immediately to the baby so choose whatever one you like. The longer the baby is medicated, the more brain damage is done.
5.Continue on with the interventions in birth by having a cesarean, forceps or vacuum pull out of your baby. None of these procedures are gentle. All involve incredible traction on the baby’s neck and head. Sometimes all three are used on the same baby. Risks of all 3 are increased when inductions and epidurals were brought into the birth.
6.Once your baby is born, feed him/her solutions made by pharma giants like Mead Johnson.
7.Be sure to inject your baby with every toxic pharmaceutical vaccine that your doctor recommends. Don’t do any research. 36 vaccines is the modern North American child’s recommended allotment of mercury preserved toxic waste.
How amazing. Scientists have been puzzling for years over the cause of autistic spectrum disorders and the latest evidence points to a genetic component, but Ms. Lemay, with NO RESEARCH of any kind, believes that she has solved the problem. And, coincidentally, it turns out that autism is caused by interventions in childbirth.
It’s all so simple. Autism is caused by ultrasound. Wait, no, it’s caused by eating the wrong food in pregnancy. Oops, I spoke too soon, it’s caused by pitocin. No, silly me, it’s caused by epidurals. Wrong again, it’s caused by C-section.
Hmmm, maybe it isn’t caused by interventions in childbirth after all. It’s caused by formula. Wait, no, it’s caused by mercury in vaccinations. Vaccines no longer have mercury in them? No problem, it must be caused by the vaccinations themselves.
Ms. Lemay is another winner of coveted “Skeptical OB Stupidity Trifecta award”. As an ignorant person with no formal training in science, statistics or medicine, she boldly goes were no stupid person has gone before. And, as a special bonus, she manages to be thoroughly offensive at the same time.
Here is a little background on Ms. Lemay. The following excerpt is taken from the judgment issued by the Supreme Court of Canada:
Sullivan and Lemay were hired by JV to provide private pre-natal classes and to act as midwives during a home birth. Although Sullivan and Lemay had some experience with home births and had done background reading, they had no formal medical qualifications.
After five hours of second stage labour, the child’s head emerged and no further contractions occurred. Sullivan and Lemay attempted to stimulate further contractions but were unsuccessful. Direct pressure was applied to the uterus, causing soreness to the mother’s stomach and back and some bruising. Approximately twenty minutes later, Emergency Services were called and the mother was transported to the hospital. Within two minutes of arrival, an intern delivered the baby using what the trial judge characterized as “a basic delivery technique”. The child showed no signs of life and resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.
Sullivan and Lemay were jointly charged with one count of criminal negligence causing death to the child of JV contrary to s. 203 of the Criminal Code, and a second count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm to JV contrary to s. 204. They were tried in the County Court of Vancouver and were found guilty on the first charge and were acquitted on the second charge.
Lemay has also been convicted of criminal contempt of court for practicing midwifery without appropriate training and without a license. According to the College of Midwives of British Columbia:
On January 4, 2002, BC Supreme Court Justice Blair found Lemay guilty of criminal contempt of court for attending ten births over a five-month period in defiance or the court injunction. At sentencing, the judge rejected Lemay’s lawyer’s request to impose a conditional sentence. The judge said he was not satisfied a conditional sentence would protect the safety of the public. “This is not an isolated breach but a continued series of breaches,” the judge said in his oral reasons for judgement.
Late in January of 2002, just weeks after being found guilty, Lemay managed another labour planned to be a home birth, which was later investigated by the police after the parents filed a complaint. This non-progressive labour went on for more than two days. Lemay is alleged to have performed a number of restricted acts during that time, including artificially rupturing the membranes. When meconium was apparent, Lemay is said to have stayed at home with the labouring mother for many more hours.
During sentencing the judge made note of this incident, pointing out that when the fetus became compromised Lemay failed to accompany the mother to Burnaby Hospital and told the mother not to mention Lemay’s name to hospital staff. An emergency cesarean was required.
Justice Blair indicated that this incident exacerbated Lemay’s problem and was indicative of her character.
Justice Blair also noted Lemay was previously found in contempt of court for refusing to give testimony at an inquest probing the 1994 death of a newborn in her care. The inquest found that the baby died of cardiac arrest as a result of an infection acquired during this birth attended by Lemay.
Lemay, legally sanctioned for negligence in the death of two babies, and informally acknowledged to be present at other homebirth deaths is considered an “expert” in the homebirth community. Her inane pronouncements are what passes for “education” among homebirth advocates. The fact that she thinks she is in a position to offer “advice” to anyone is scandalous. The fact that anyone would take her “advice” is absurd.
Ms. Lemay is right about one thing, though. If you hire her as a midwife and your baby dies as a result of her idiocy, it will not develop autism. Somehow I doubt that is comforting to the parents of the many dead babies she has delivered.
