I’ve written before about the tribalism of natural parenting advocates.
According to sociologist Jan Macvarish:
The idea of ‘parental tribalism’ … [is] descriptive of a tendency among individuals to form their identities through the way they parent, or perhaps more precisely, through differentiating themselves from the way some parents parent and identifying with others …
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]For lactivists and natural childbirth advocates the only thing that matters is whether a scientific paper supports their “side.”[/pullquote]
And I’ve written about the parallels between Trumpworld and the world of lactivism and natural childbirth. Both rest on a foundation of ignorance and lies.
But rarely have I read such an apt description of the “tribal epistemology” of lactivism and natural childbirth:
Information is evaluated based not on conformity to common standards of evidence or correspondence to a common understanding of the world, but on whether it supports the tribe’s values and goals and is vouchsafed by tribal leaders. “Good for our side” and “true” begin to blur into one.
The author, David Roberts of Vox, is referring to right wing talk radio aficionados but it applies equally to the world of natural parenting.
Most lactivists and natural childbirth advocates have no idea how to read a scientific paper, what constitutes scientific evidence or how to analyze statistics. As a result, they are forced to rely on leaders to spoon feed them the information that supports the tribe’s values and goals. Lactivists have no idea what the scientific evidence shows about breastfeeding; they only know what people like Melissa Bartick tell them. They have no idea what the scientific evidence shows about childbirth until Henci Goer or someone similar “interprets” it for them.
Sadly for both the thought leaders and acolytes the only thing that matters is whether a scientific paper supports their “side.” Everything else is ignored.
Listen to Rush Limbaugh’s assessment of the worldview of conservatives and liberals:
We live in two universes. One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie. Everything run, dominated, and controlled by the left here and around the world is a lie. The other universe is where we are, and that’s where reality reigns supreme and we deal with it. And seldom do these two universes ever overlap.
As Roberts explains:
In Limbaugh’s view, the core institutions and norms of American democracy have been irredeemably corrupted by an alien enemy. Their claims to transpartisan authority — authority that applies equally to all political factions and parties — are fraudulent. There are no transpartisan authorities; there is only zero-sum competition between tribes, the left and right. Two universes.
In the view of lactivists, the core institutions of medicine and science have been irredeemably corrupted by the formula industry. Their claims to authority — through rational thought and scientific evidence — are deemed fraudulent. There is no unbiased scientific evidence, there is only a zero-sum competition between breastfeeding supporters and the formula industry.
In the view of natural childbirth advocates, the core institutions of obstetrics and medicine have been irredeemably corrupted by the institutions and practices of “technocratic” birth. Their claims to authority — through rational thought and scientific evidence are deemed fraudulent. There is no unbiased scientific evidence, only a zero-sum competition between midwives and doulas on the one hand and obstetricians on the other.
Extrapolating from Robert’s views of tribal epistemology in politics, we can assert that on one side is what we might call the classic theory of science as a search for knowledge. In this view, science is a kind of structured contest. Factions and parties battle over scientific evidence, implications and policies, but the field of play on which they battle is ring-fenced by a set of common institutions and norms like journals and conferences, both open to all.
In contrast, lactivists and natural childbirth advocates insist that science itself, its rules and referees, are captured by the other side (the formula industry, the hospital birth industry), operating for the other side’s benefit. Any claim of scientific authority is viewed with skepticism, as a kind of ruse or tool through which industry and medicine seek to dominate lactivists and natural childbirth advocates.
As a result, both the lactivist world and the natural childbirth world operate as the equivalent of right wing talk radio. They are filled with ignorance, misrepresentation of both scientific evidence and physicians, and bitterness. Rather than trying to compete with physicians, scientists and industries through journals and conferences, lactivists and natural childbirth advocates have withdrawn into a world of their own, complete with their own conferences and journals from which mainstream scientists and physicians are excluded.
Ironically, lactivists and natural childbirth advocates love to assert that they have educated themselves about breastfeeding and childbirth, but they are no more educated about either than Fox News viewers are educated about politics. Neither has anything to do with increasing knowledge; both are concerned above all with promoting tribalism.
Where does that leave us? It leaves us with a medical system that could benefit from the interests and concerns of lactivists and natural childbirth advocates at precisely the moment when, sadly, lactivists and natural childbirth advocates have become divorced from both scientific evidence and reality.
