There’s yet another study out of Canada demonstrating the safety of homebirth for a subset of low risk women chosen by applying rigorous exclusion criteria. In contrast, every study of American homebirth, as well as state or national homebirth statistics that shows the US homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death. Why is Canadian homebirth […]
Latest News
The business of midwifery
Contemporary midwifery is to a distressingly large extent about wresting back economic control of childbirth from obstetricians. Midwives have woven a convenient fantasy about how obstetricians “stole” childbirth (and the money it represents) from midwives. That fantasy rests on a profound unwillingness to acknowledge both historical and scientific fact. It is a historical fact that […]
Kathy Dettwyler: formula-fed children definitely WILL BE INFERIOR
New motherhood is the last bastion of acceptable bullying and no one believes that more firmly than professional lactivists. Many are incensed by Courtney Jung’s book Lactivism, which shows definitively that the benefit of breastfeeding in industrialized countries has been dramatically overstated. In expressing their outrage they inadvertently demonstrate exactly the ugly, sanctimonious behavior that […]
Lactivism and disciplining women’s bodies
With the possible exception of the author Courtney Jung, no one could be more thrilled about attention her book “Lactivism” is receiving than I am. The book has opened the door to the conversation that we need to have about the ways that natural parenting industries manipulate women into buying their products. As everyone has […]
C-sections, asthma and white hat bias
The study of C-sections is afflicted with white hat bias. What is white hat bias? ‘White hat bias’ [is] bias leading to distortion of information in the service of what may be perceived to be righteous ends… WHB bias may be conjectured to be fuelled by feelings of righteous zeal, indignation toward certain aspects of […]
An excerpt from Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting
Last night I sent in the final edits for my forthcoming book Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting. I’m posting an excerpt in celebration. The book will be published by HarperCollins on April 5, 2016. When I was a practicing obstetrician, I spent a lot of time correcting the misinformation of natural […]
Midwives oppose the use of drugs in labor … unless they can administer them
Below are the characteristics of two types of pain relief in labor. Guess which one is favored by midwives. If you guessed “B,” you’d be wrong. True, it is easily adjustable, non sedating, has no impact on memory or oxygen levels and crosses the placenta in miniscule amounts if at all. But it’s the dreaded […]
UK trying to push women into homebirths that they don’t want
For many years, UK midwives and natural childbirth advocates insisted that a significant portion of women would choose homebirth if it were available to them. That hasn’t turned out to be the case. Despite increased promotion of and access to homebirth, despite research tailor made to promote the “safety” of homebirth, the UK homebirth rate […]
Stop obstetric violence toward babies, Janet Fraser!
You cannot make this stuff up Janet Fraser, the Australian unassisted birth advocate who let her own baby die at homebirth has accused me of “obstetric violence.” #endviolenceagainstwomen by Dr Amy Tuteur. Vicious vitriolic campaigning against women who experience #stillbirth #obstetric violence You remember Janet, right? She’s the woman who, in the wake of her […]
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
