The Skeptical OB

I first wrote about the problem last year. Promoting normal birth is killing mothers and babies: Gill Edwards, a leading clinical negligence solicitor with the firm Pannone, is in no doubt why these fatal mistakes continue. ‘Too often, we see a desire for autonomy, sometimes verging on arrogance, on the part of some midwives,’ she […]

It must be awesome to have followers so gullible that you can make up whatever you want, no matter how idiotic, and your supporters will believe you. Ina May Gaskin, the ultimate fraud, should know. She makes it up as she goes along and homebirth advocates, among the least knowledgeable people alive on the subject […]

Earlier this month I wrote about Henci Goer’s problem with scientific evidence on display in her latest book Optimal Care in Childbirth. Her problem is that the scientific evidence does not support her preferred methods of care. No problem! She simply created excuses as to why she and her supporters can blithely ignore the scientific […]

The Motherlode column in The New York Times has performed a public service by highlighting a relatively common problem that receives little attention: severe perineal tears, a known complication of vaginal birth. Ashley Nelson describes her experience: … In addition to the tear, doctors would later find a rectovaginal fistula, wherein a passage forms between […]

I’ve been getting lots of emails about People Magazine’s article on Kimberly Van Der Beek’s homebirth. Kimberly is the wife of sitcom star James Van Der Beek. Facing a C-section for a breech baby, Kimberly met with Dr. Stuart Fischbein, “an angel in the birthing world,” who ultimately presided over the breech homebirth of her […]

How selfish and immature do you have to revel in the homebirth of a baby who suffered nerve damage as a result? An initial check reveals a brachial plexus palsy in her right arm, a tender neck, and some bruising, but otherwise Virginia has come away unscathed. Melanie, you ought to stop congratulating yourself for […]

OMG, Mamas, I am so traumatized by my latest hearth experience. I was planning to go entirely natural at home and then everything was ruined by the firemen. The story of this trauma begins with my last hearth experience. I was so uneducated that I believed all the fear mongering around fire in our society. […]

Childbirth activist and social anthropologist Sheila Kitzinger has helpfully identified the ultimate first world problem: I didn’t have an orgasm during childbirth. That’s what I took away from today’s piece in The Telegraph entitled Is childbirth orgasmic? I think not, Sheila Kitzinger. Don’t be misled by the title. The article is a puff piece (“Would […]

Why are those who battle pseudoscience called skeptics? It’s not because they are skeptical in the colloquial sense. Rather, the term refers to the philosophy of skepticism. According to Wikipedia: Philosophical skepticism is an overall approach that requires all information to be well supported by evidence… In philosophy, skepticism refers more specifically to any one […]

Ever notice how often the word “healing” is bandied about in homebirth circles? Type the words “healing homebirth” into Google and you get more than 750,000 links almost all of which describe the “trauma” of a “failed” attempt at vaginal birth, or the need for a C-section or a failed previous homebirth. I have a […]