The Skeptical OB

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this morning, Kellyanne Conway declared that she is not a classic feminist: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Did you marry the man of your choice or did your father trade you along with a goat and some land for family advantage?[/pullquote] It’s difficult for me to call […]

No child in an industrialized country should suffer from hunger. Period. It is a scandal that millions of children suffer hunger nonetheless. That’s what makes the self-aggrandizing hypocrisy of lactivists like Scottish Member of Parliament Alison Thewlis both ugly and deadly. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Yet another privileged women wants to use her […]

In the past day Milo Yiannopoulos has had a speaking invitation to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) withdrawn, had a book contract cancelled and resigned from Breitbart, the media outlet that boosted him to fame. Why now when Yiannopoulos has long been a racist, misogynist bully and provocateur? It happened because Yiannopoulos was found […]

Nothing screams privilege like patting yourself on the back for refusing the childbirth interventions that an impoverished woman would walk 5 miles through the jungle to get for her child. Nothing says narcissism like imagining that the internet should be impressed with you because you did something that poor women in developing nations do each […]

One of the most bewildering, depressing things about Trump supporters is their willingness to embrace complete lies offered to them as fake news. As The Washington Post notes, despite a disasterous first month of the presidency, filled with huge blunders, outrageous lies, and feuds of his own making, Trump supporters think he is doing a […]

Dear Ms. Martinez Sullivan, Have you lost your mind? What are you doing posting a picture of a dead baby on the Facebook page of the Fed Is Best Foundation? You’re not a random lactivist. I see from your bio that you are the Executive Director of children’s nutrition organization 1000 Days: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” […]

What’s the difference between risk assessment and risk perception? This: How extraordinary! The richest, longest-lived, best-protected, most resourceful civilization, with the highest degree of insight into its own technology, is on its way to becoming one of the most frightened. As political scientist Aaron Wildavsky notes, Americans are frightened of health risks. There’s just one […]

Lactation consultants and organizations tell new mothers that the average size of a newborn baby’s stomach is only a teaspoon (5 cc). That’s supposed to ease their minds when their newborns are screaming in hunger and they can tell that they are producing very little colostrum or milk. There’s just one problem. It’s not true. […]

Vaccine refusal stems from ignorance of immunology, so it would make sense that correcting their erroneous beliefs with facts would reduce the incidence of vaccine refusal. Unfortunately, the opposite is what actually happens. Nyhan and colleagues tested a variety of vaccine information interventions and found: None of the interventions increased parental intent to vaccinate a […]

Last April, in an op-ed in the NYTimes, I explained Why is American homebirth so dangerous?: The problem is that there are two types of midwives in the United States. The first, certified nurse midwives, called C.N.M.s, are perhaps the best-educated, best-trained midwives in the world, exceeding standards set by the International Confederation of Midwives. […]