The Skeptical OB

If you’ve been on The Skeptical OB Facebook page this week you’ve probably noticed a seemingly never ending parade of lactivists dropping in to rail at me. What have I done this time? I’ve dared to insist that #fedisbest. In response I’ve been repeatedly accused of “bashing” breastfeeding. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Is […]

Maybe it’s because she lives in Australia, but Meg Nagle, the Milk Meg, appears to believe that mothers are marsupials. Human beings, like nearly all mammal species, are placentals. We have relatively long pregnancies during which we nourish our young through the placenta. The placenta is a complex organ that allows for indirect communication between […]

I first asked this question in 2009 during the months in which Congress debated the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare). I was struggling with the irony of religious conservatives, who have a sordid history of trying to force religion into medicine, rejecting the effort to provide health insurance for all Americans. I […]

The lactivist blogosphere is buzzing with news of micro photographs and videos that purported demonstrate that breastmilk is alive. They were originally posted by Jansen Howard on her Facebook page. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Under the microscope breastmilk looks just like salad dressing.[/pullquote] You guys… this is SO COOL!!!!!!!! this is the living […]

Breastfeeding is great. Lactivism not so much. Breastfeeding is about feeding a baby. Lactivism is about pressuring women to use their body in lactivist approved, ways. Breastfeeding support is undeniably good. Lactivist pressure can be frighteningly abusive. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Sadly the abusive nature of lactivism is not a side effect; it’s […]

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]If breastmilk is only milk than they are only mothers — and that’s simply unacceptable.[/pullquote] There’s a saying that fish can’t see water because they entirely surrounded by it. Similarly lactivists can’t see brainwashing because they’re entirely surrounded by it. Consider these gems: This came from a mommy group. […]

There are many viewpoints sheltering under the umbrella of the philosophy of natural childbirth — midwife attended birth, home birth, unassisted birth, hypnobirthing and even orgasmic birth — but all share a central belief in the value of masochism. Ashley Noel Mack writes about the supposed transformative value of maternal masochism in The Self-Made Mom: […]

Bitter grief is often an unselfish motivator. Consider organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, started by parents who suffered the ultimate loss, to ensure that other parents would not have to endure the death of a child. Consider the various laws named after children who were abducted and murdered, championed by parents who wanted to […]

Nothing in my nearly 30 years as a mother equips me to understand this. Baby is eight weeks old now and doing fine, but it was a traumatic time. Went into spontaneous labor at 42 weeks and continued with homebirth as planned for 12 hours. Plenty of dilatations [sic] and effective contractions but descent was […]

When I started the predecessor of this blog more than a decade ago I was a lone voice in the wilderness. Now my views — including the notion that natural childbirth is a deeply anti-feminist effort to exert control over women — are generating ever more attention in academic circles. The latest paper to focus […]