The Skeptical OB

The flat-earthers are back! Well, not exactly, but their descendants have come up with the flat-earth equivalent for the 21st century: they don’t “believe in” vaccination. Anti-vaxxers are all over social media promoting the “dangers” of vaccination. Anti-vaccine advocacy isn’t about vaccination, though. It’s all about parents and how they wish to view themselves. It […]

They think they can ignore the problems they cause. They refuse to listen to the younger generation they harm. They imagine that because they hold the power, they don’t have to care. They’re not boomers; they’re lactivists. Tens of thousands of infants are re-hospitalized each year for breastfeeding complications. Shockingly, exclusive breastfeeding has become the […]

Yesterday I wrote about why you can’t trust lactation consultants to understand scientific literature. I used a post in which an IBCLC insisted the fact that 1 in 71 exclusively breastfed babies are re-hospitalized for complications is not supported by the scientific evidence. I’ve repeatedly cited the claim and the paper that it comes from. […]

Lucy Ruddle IBCLC is exasperated because I have repeatedly used her as an example of the heartlessness many lactation consultants show to women who can’t or don’t wish to breastfeed. I doubt she is going to be relieved that today I will use her as an example of the utter cluelessness of lactation consultants when […]

There is no question that aggressive promotion of the ideology of normal birth has led to tens if not hundreds of infant brain injuries and deaths in various hospital trusts around the UK. There is no question that midwives were excruciatingly aware that they were at fault; that’s why they hid the evidence. Yet I […]

I understand why maternal suffering is central to lactivism. It, like other aspects of natural mothering (natural childbirth, attachment parenting) is meant to control women. It was literally designed to subordinate women’s intelligence, talents, needs and desires to the purported “imperatives” of full time mothering. Women’s needs and desires are therefore rendered invisible and treated […]

It’s described as the “largest maternity scandal in NHS history.” That’s saying something in a system that has suffered massive maternity scandals like Morecambe Bay. According to The Independent: Dozens of babies and three mothers died on the wards of a single hospital trust, in what is being described as the largest maternity scandal in […]

Melissa Bartick, MD has a forthcoming paper in the journal Pediatrics entitled Trends in Breastfeeding Interventions, Skin-to-Skin Care, and Sudden Infant Death in the First 6 Days after Birth. She claims her data show that the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative cannot possibly be blamed for sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) due to smothering during skin-to-skin […]

Women tell inconvenient truths. That leaves us with two choices: we could believe them and deal with the resulting cognitive dissonance or we could ease our discomfort by insisting, without evidence, that they are wrong. Guess which is easier. For years women have been telling inconvenient truths about sexual aggression, harassment and assault. I doubt […]

No doubt it is very difficult to learn that the organization that you lead, Baby Friendly USA — the organization that pays you — is completely ineffective at its central task. But that doesn’t make it acceptable to respond with fake news. Fact vs. FIB: The Impact of Baby-Friendly on Breastfeeding Initiation Rates Is a […]