It’s about time! The USPSTF (US Preventive Services Task Force) has changed its approach on breastfeeding. According to MedPage Today: Primary care clinicians should “support” patients who wish to breastfeed their infants, said a draft recommendation statement from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), in an effort to avoid the impression of pressuring women […]
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If you think childbirth is about your ego, you’re doing it wrong
Childbirth is not performance art. That basic fact seems to have escaped natural childbirth advocates who are under the mistaken impression that their babies’ births are about their own egos. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]If you want to heal, get a therapist; don’t risk your baby’s life in a do over for nearly […]
The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s Big Lie
Dr. Alison Stuebe of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine has had something of an epiphany. Six years ago, I wrote a blog reflecting on Diane Wiessinger’s seminal essay, “Watch your language.” “There are no benefits of breastfeeding,” I wrote. “There are risks of formula feeding.” [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]For years the breastfeeding […]
The vicious anti-feminism of natural parenting advocates
I posted the image above on Facebook and got the following response: You want to spend 10 months carrying a fetus to a live birth… You should be expected to breastfeed to at least 2 years, you should be expected to baby wear – PERIOD. You should also demand paid maternity leave, expect an extra […]
A baby died, a group imploded, and home VBAC proponents utterly miss the point
Meg Heket is holding a pity party for herself and her friends. Writing in Whole Woman, Heket, an unassisted birth advocate and sister of Janet Fraser (My dead baby was not as traumatic as my birth rape), addresses women she believes destroyed a large, private Facebook group of unassisted birth and homebirth advocates. [pullquote align=”right” […]
Repeat after me: the C-section rate is not a measure of quality
“The operation was a success but the patient died.” It’s an old joke, but there’s an element of truth to it. Technical prowess in providing medical care is meaningless if the patient does not survive and get better. In medicine outcome is far more important than process. That’s why efforts to reduce C-section rates are […]
Congratulate me! Modern Alternative Mama hate reviewed my book!
There have been many highlights in my professional life, but rarely has one filled me with as much glee as this one: Modern Alternative Mama, Katie Tietje, hate reviewed my book! She and her followers are trying to drive down the ratings for PUSH BACK: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting. And the best […]
You know pressure to breastfeed is intolerable when Kim Kardashian can’t own her decision to quit
First we heard that the singer Adele, a smart, powerful woman, found the pressure to breastfeed “fu**ing ridiculous.” Now comes evidence that even Kim Kardashian is vulnerable to that same intolerable pressure. Kardashian, another extroardinarily powerful woman, could not bring herself to own her decision to stop breastfeeding her son Saint. Instead she blamed her […]
Have you been duped by “natural” products?
See the shark? The shark embodies nature. It’s vicious, deadly, and unconcerned with anything other than its own wellbeing. Nature is about survival of the fittest … generally by killing both prey and competitors. So how did “natural” come to mean “safe” and “gentle”? [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Anti-vaxxers who prefer “natural immunity” […]
Claiming formula manufacturers are waging war against breastfeeding is like claiming birth control manufacturers are waging war against pregnancy
It’s the central conceit at the heart of contemporary lactivism, and it serves as a justification for the shaming tactics so beloved of lactivists. It’s the fantasy that the formula industry has been waging war on breastfeeding and it’s a lie. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#AA0F0B” class=”” size=””]Women use formula for the same reason that […]
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
