The Skeptical OB

Ten: One to teach the course “Empower yourself by changing your own light bulb.” One to whisper affirmations encouraging the light bulb to be in the correct position. One to photograph the event. One to tweet the event live. One to fill the plastic kiddie pool. (Note: professional electricians claim that standing in water while […]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why sancti-selfies have become the latest weapon in the mommy wars. Several weeks ago I wrote about brelfies, breastfeeding selfies. I quoted the paper Selfies| Virtual Lactivism: Breastfeeding Selfies and the Performance of Motherhood by Boon and Pentney. [pullquote align=”right” color=”#c78157″]The sancti-selfie says: I am a […]

I’ve been writing for years that the World Health Organization conjured its “optimal” C-section rate of 10-15% from thin air. It is the childbirth lie that would not die. Now researchers from Harvard and Stanford have put a stake through its heart in the just published paper Relationship Between Cesarean Delivery Rate and Maternal and […]

Earlier this month, after 7 years, dozens of deaths, and an extraordinary, massive cover-up effort, Cathy Warwick of the Royal College of Midwives finally acknowledged the truth: Failures that led to a major baby death scandal could be being repeated elsewhere because midwives are not challenging poor care, the country’s most senior midwife has said. […]

Talk about having a tin ear. On the same day that Courtney Jung’s book Lactivism was published, taking the breastfeeding industry to task for grossly exaggerating the benefits of breastfeeding and the fear mongering used to promote it, The United States Committee on Breastfeeding rushes to prove her point with a new campaign built around […]