The most important tool of any expert-in-her-own-mind birth blogger is the delete button.
Jen Kamel, commercial real estate professional, and expert-in-her-own-mind birth blogger is an excellent example. Kamel has been banning and deleting for years. Why?
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Should women who disagree be seen, acknowledged and respected or silenced and banished?[/pullquote]
- She cannot tolerate disagreement.
- She is incapable of addressing scientific criticism.
- She must prevent readers from thinking for themselves.
- She wants to convince women to pay money for her worthless products (see VBACFacts Academy is the Trump University of natural childbirth)
But that’s not how Kamel sees it. Consider her justification for her recent interaction with a CNM (certified nurse midwife) who publicly exposed Kamel’s advice as dangerous and irresponsible. First Kamel deleted the CNM’s posts, which were scientifically accurate, and then banned her.
Laughably, Kamel attempts to justify her tactics as integrity when they are the exact opposite.
I think it is important to follow people whose beliefs are in alignment with your own. This way as individuals and as a community, we remain in integrity.
That’s not integrity; that’s brain washing.
In that space of integrity, I am known as someone who gets the evidence into the hands of parents, professionals, and providers.
Among obstetric professionals Kamel is NOT recognized as a person of integrity, but rather a shill who charges a fortune for information that is available for free at many other websites; who promotes process (VBAC) over outcome (healthy baby/healthy mother); and who provides false information and deletes correct information when others post it on her Facebook page.
I have had hundreds of health care professionals, such as obstetricians, family practice doctors, labor & delivery nurses, CNMs, and CPMs, attend my programs to rave reviews.
I call bullshit. I’d be surprised if there were a dozen doctors of any kind who would waste money on Kamel’s nonsense.
Most importantly, Kamel let’s us know that she doesn’t like argumentative women on her Facebook page.
Now, from time to time, I come in contact with someone in the community who doesn’t resonate with my mission. This is to be expected in life. I respect their choice to not resonate with the message shared, just as much as I hope in return they respect that I will remain true to myself… speaking out on the importance of VBAC access, the ethics of forced cesarean surgery, the public health implications of VBAC bans, and so much more…
So I if don’t resonate with you, then I humbly and graciously suggest that you might find more joy in someone else’s community.
Yet how would she feel if obstetricians took the same view, ignoring women precisely because they were argumentative over the issue of VBAC or refusing interventions or the right to bodily autonomy? I suspect she would be horrified.
Imagine for a moment that an obstetrician said to a patient:
From time to time I come in contact with a pregnant woman whose desires to not resonate with my views. I will ignore her desires and remain true to myself. If you don’t like my views, get another doctor. If you don’t like my hospital’s VBAC ban, find another hospital. Do not try to change my mind or my hospital’s policy; that would be an assault on our integrity.
Would Kamel agree with that? I doubt it.
If Kamel’s work is about anything at all, it is about making sure that women who disagree with their obstetricians are seen, acknowledged and respected, not silenced and banished. Yet Kamel refuses to make sure that women who disagree with HER are seen, acknowledged and respected; instead she ensures that they are silenced and banished.
Why? Because she cannot tolerate disagreement, can’t address scientific criticism, can’t let women think for themselves, and cannot be diverted from her primary task of making money.
That’s not integrity; that’s hypocrisy.
