Last week I wrote a post about the sheer stupidity of Erin Ellis’ claims about postpartum hemorrhage. Erin has now written her reply and it seems that she hasn’t learned anything.
To recap, Erin claimed that there is a lower incidence of postpartum hemorrhage outside of the hospital because:
Midwives honor the biological importance of the hormonal bubble after birth and do not intervene unless the mother or baby needs help.
As I pointed out, postpartum hemorrhage has nothing to do with bubbles, hormonal or otherwise. Here’s what we know about postpartum hemorrhage:
1. It is common in nature; in fact, it is the LEADING cause of maternal mortality world-wide.
2. It is typically caused by failure of the uterus to contract effectively or by pieces of the placenta that have broken off and remained in the uterus.
3.It is far better to prevent postpartum hemorrhage than to treat it.
4.Active management is much more effective than watchful waiting in preventing postpartum hemorrhage.
I advised Erin that she should delete her grossly inaccurate post before she misleads even more women than she has done already. Instead of removing the post, Erin has written a reply. Her reply demonstrates that she has learned absolutely nothing.
Did she acknowledge that postpartum hemorrhage is common in nature? No.
Did she explain that most partpartum hemorrhages are caused NOT by interventions by uterine atony and retained pieces of placenta? No.
Did she acknowledge that, far from causing hemorrhage, routine interventions dramatically reduce the risk of hemorrhage? No, she didn’t do that either.
What did she do? She complained that she was misunderstood.
I use hemorrhage to illustrate the larger point that events in typical hospital births — and their outcomes — cannot automatically be extrapolated to out-of-hospital settings.
Don’t worry, Erin, I didn’t misunderstand what you were trying to do. I pointed out that what you were trying to do was based on claims that are flat out false.
You specifically used the example of postpartum hemorrhage to make the point that interventions cause hemorrhage and endogenous hormones (you remember the “hormonal bubble,” right?) are all that is necessary to prevent it. You were trying to make the point that most postpartum hemorrhages that occur are caused by intervention, but you are flat out wrong about that.
Erin, you apparently feel aggrieved but you ought to feel embarrassed. You write:
I will not, however, publish vindictive comments that reflect more of a personal attack than honest questioning or critical discourse.
No one asked you to publish any comments. I didn’t submit any comments to your blog. I asked you to publish correct information and to remove the inane garbage that you originally posted.
And, if you remember, I also asked you to get an obstetric textbook and read the FACTS about postpartum hemorrhage. Clearly, you didn’t even bother.
