Natural childbirth advocates are distressed that in the space of one week The New York Times published my piece on the dangers of homebirth and The Washington Post published my piece on the role of shame and guilt in promoting the natural childbirth industry. What seems to make them most upset is that I point […]
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What we fail to talk about when we talk about medical mistakes: time pressure
I find pseudoscience anathema, but that does not mean that I am apologist for contemporary medicine. I am quite critical of some aspect of medical practice. The subject of medical errors has particular personal resonance for me as my father died at age 60 in the wake of a major medical error that occurred at […]
On Mother’s Day: skin to skin vs. heart to heart
At its best, the relationship between mother and child is a transcendent experience. The love at its core is different than any other. It is larger and more selfless than any other love. It is the love that leads a mother to nurture a helpless infant through toddlerhood and school age, through teenage angst to […]
The theology of quackery; how pseudoscience has become a secular religion
As any doctor or public health official can tell you, it’s hard to combat quackery. It makes no sense on the face of it. A group of otherwise logical people have fallen headlong for nonsense. It might be anti-vaccine advocacy; it might be supplements; it might be cancer quackery. None of it can be proven […]
Why did we suddenly stop mothering new mothers?
Living as we do in the midst of contemporary maternity culture, it’s difficult to recognize that that the beliefs and priorities that drive US childbirth care are not universal; indeed they are hardly more than a generation old. Our beliefs and priorities in regard to maternity care are particular to this time and place. Sadly […]
Is this pitiful response the best homebirth midwives could offer?
I’ve been waiting eagerly to see how CPMs (certified professional midwives) would respond to my piece in The New York Times Sunday Review Why is American Home Birth So Dangerous? I made several points in the piece: Homebirth is relatively safe in Canada and other countries. The US homebirth death rate is 3-7X higher than […]
No, it was not “her journey”; your baby died because you chose homebirth
Every time I think I’ve plumbed the depths of the deadly depravity of homebirth advocates who think their birth experience is more important than whether their baby lives or dies, another homebirth loss mother comes along to disabuse me. Lisa Flatto has no remorse for her daughter’s entirely preventable death at a home VBAC. Indeed […]
Response to critics of my homebirth piece in The New York Times
I was thrilled to write a piece on homebirth for The New York Times. As of this morning it was one of the most read opinion pieces of the last few days, and one of the most emailed articles of the entire paper. The comment section quickly grew to 337 comments before it was closed. […]
Natural parenting erases women’s needs
There’s a new kind of confessional essay making the rounds: “natural parenting destroyed me.” Often it focuses on breastfeeding — how trying to maintain exclusive breastfeeding in the absence of adequate breastmilk make me and my baby crazy — but sometimes it concentrates on childbirth or attachment parenting. Rachel Meyer hits all three in her […]
Is the obsession with natural childbirth a form of body dysmorphic disorder?
What is a “healing birth” and why would you need one? In the world of natural childbirth, a healing birth is a do-over for a birth that did not meet the prescribed ideal. It might be a do-over for a C-section or a do-over for an attempted homebirth that ended with a hospital transfer. According […]
Amy Tuteur, MD
Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician gynecologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1979 and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She left the practice of medicine to raise her four children. Her book, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com... More
