The Skeptical OB

To date there has not been a single US study that shows that homebirth in the US is safe. All the existing studies show that US birth at home has a perinatal death rate from 3-9X higher than comparable risk hospital birth. Until now. A recently published study from Washington State shows how homebirth COULD […]

It’s appalling to find that at the outset of the year 2022, lactation professionals are still using their favorite slur. Do they continue to use the slur because they think women are inherently untrustworthy? Do they continue to use the slur because they refuse to learn from scientific evidence? Or do they continue to use […]

If you want to understand contemporary lactivism — and its tenets that exist independent of or even in direct opposition to — scientific evidence, you need to understand the social movements behind them. The phrase ”breast is best” is a social construct masquerading as a medical claim. Contemporary lactivism owes its origins to two social […]

Why do so many good mothers feel bad about breastfeeding? Why has breastfeeding become the leading risk factor for newborn hospital readmission resulting in tens of thousands of readmissions each year? Why have none of the benefits predicted for term babies (decreased mortality, severe morbidity and healthcare expenditures) come to pass? It’s because “breast is […]

In a victory for both babies and mothers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has REMOVED exclusive breastfeeding rate as a hospital quality metric! Specifically, the government removed PC-05. What is PC-05? PC-05 assesses the rate of newborns exclusively fed breast milk during the newborn’s entire hospitalization. As I’ve written in the past, […]

Countless studies have demonstrated a high correlation between breastfeeding and all sorts of desirable health and economic outcomes from reduced infant mortality to reduced obesity, from higher IQ to higher educational achievement. That’s led breastfeeding researchers to erroneously conclude that breastfeeding CAUSES improved outcomes. In fact nearly all studies attributing benefits to breastfeeding are riddled […]

There’s a new study in The Lancet that claims to show that breastfeeding saves lives. According to Breastfeeding and Post-perinatal Infant Deaths in the United States, A National Prospective Cohort Analysis: Breastfeeding initiation is significantly associated with reduced odds of post-perinatal infant deaths in multiple racial and ethnic groups within the US population. These findings […]

I’ve been writing about homebirth in one forum or another for more than 25 years. During that time I’ve seen some egregiously incompetent providers, but the case of Sarita Bennett, DO CPM, Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Midwives Alliance of North America may be the most chilling yet. Again and again and […]

Ignorance is not merely an absence of knowledge. Sometimes it’s the product of a deliberate effort to replace knowledge with doubt or even lies. Classic examples come from business. The opioid crisis was triggered when Purdue Pharma lied to doctors about the addictive potential of OxyContin. We were told that it was not addictive so […]

First they refused to wear masks to protect themselves and prevent the transmission of the deadly coronavirus. Now they’re refusing to take a vaccine that will both protect them and reduce transmission of the disease. Why do they refuse? – In part it’s conservative Republican political motivations and the desire to signal loyalty. – In […]