The Skeptical OB

You’re a good mother; your children show you that you are. Your baby greets you with a thousand watt smile when you pick her up from her nap. She loves to be in your arms when she feels happy and she needs to be in your arms when she feels ill. Your toddler can’t get […]

Warning! This story is not for the faint of heart. According to a story in The Independent: A doctor caused an unborn baby to be accidentally decapitated inside her mother’s womb while performing a delivery, a medical tribunal has heard… The obstetrician at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee is accused of wrongly going ahead with a […]

It’s the ur-myth of lactivism, the belief that we came from Breastopia and we should return to Breastopia. There’s just one problem: Breastopia never existed and frantic efforts to “reclaim” it are harming babies and mothers. To understand why it helps to compare Breastopia to the natural world. That’s why I created the handy chart […]

In a world of vicious clashes over ideas and even over facts themselves, there is one thing on which everyone can agree. Thought leaders on the left and the right, among every possible ethnic and religious group, among scientists and lay people are united in their insistence that breastfeeding has major benefits for babies. Too […]

The more research we do, the LESS support there is for the claim that C-sections impact the neonatal microbiome in ways that are ultimately harmful to health. Research on the impact of C-section on the neonatal microbiome has been plagued with major problems, the most important of which is the naturalistic fallacy: the belief that […]

Have you no shame, La Leche League? Once again you cruelly posted this “badge.” I breastfed my baby through postpartum depression! Never mind that women are literally killing themselves and their babies because of postpartum depression, and breastfeeding has been implicated in the suffering of these women: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Do you make […]

It made intuitive sense that it would improve outcomes for babies. In fact, it made so much sense that it was implemented before large scale testing was conducted. Now, years later, it turns out that the benefits were dramatically overstated and the risks were ignored. I could be talking about electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) that […]

Privilege can be very ugly. Witness the specter of a black obstetrician being upbraided primarily by white people for a speech about reducing racial disparities in maternal mortality. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Vilifying Dr. Brown for stating an incontrovertible medical fact — contraception saves women’s lives — reflects the privilege of well off, […]

Yesterday I wrote about the new ACOG recommendations for postpartum care and the fact that they are cheap, low tech window dressing for expensive, high tech problems. The most obvious example is the recommendation to screen for postpartum depression. Screening for postpartum depression is literally the first mandate in the long list of recommendations. Screen […]

I am going to look a gift horse in the mouth. ACOG has just released new guidelines for postpartum care. They were long overdue but sadly they are more window dressing than substantive improvement. Moreover, the way they are being promoted is odious. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have published the guidelines […]