There has been a spate of articles purporting to explain what Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is trying to “tell us” with her choices. The subtle but important message Duchess Meghan is sending new moms about giving birth: Meghan showed the world something that many of her royal predecessors have covered up: what a woman’s body […]
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Belief that Duchess Meghan is sending messages is symptomatic of our dysfunctional mothering culture
Surprise! CDC confirms US maternal mortality rate is high because pregnancy is inherently dangerous.
While the critics of modern obstetrics have been dithering about C-sections and intervention rates, American women have been dying in and around childbirth of potentially preventable causes that have nothing to do with either. The latest CDC report on maternal mortality confirms that the US maternal mortality rate is high NOT because of C-sections and […]
Natural mothering, intuition and the specter of the “bad other mother”
Women’s Studies Prof. Chris Bobel’s book, The Paradox of Natural Mothering, is seventeen years old but reads as if it were written yesterday. In Bobel’s view, natural mothering isn’t just a paradox, it is a plethora of paradoxes. Promoted as radical simplicity, parenting just like our foremothers and offering feminist empowerment, it is in many […]
What alternative health advocates get wrong about medical mistakes
My father died in the wake of a medical mistake. He died in the hospital where I had trained and was on staff. It was nine months after his doctors neglected to inform him that a routine pre-operative chest X-ray had shown a small cancerous tumor in his lung. When he showed up seven months […]
Why does the World Health Organization claim — falsely — that breastfeeding prevents obesity?
If I had to guess, I would say that the folks at the World Health Organization are afraid. They’re afraid that if women in industrialized countries knew the truth about how trivial the benefits of breastfeeding really are, they might not feel pressured to breastfeed. I don’t know why that would be a bad thing […]
Bacteria and viruses are predators, our children are prey and vaccines are the fence that separates them
Imagine an idyllic village nestled in a jungle clearing. The people are prospering because they have easy access to animals for meat, copious river fish, and abundant roots and nuts. There’s just one problem: the same land that feeds them so generously is filled with predators who attack them. Lions and tigers eat the villagers, […]
Don’t squirt breastmilk on it! It’s not a cure for everything.
Breastfeeding research keeps veering into pseudoscience. It’s not merely that breastfeeding research like most pseudoscience research starts with the conclusion — breastfeeding is beneficial — and then works backwards to find data to support it. That has led to persistently massive exaggeration of the benefits and utterly ignoring the risks. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” […]
Why is there no alternative airline industry?
If its customers are to be believed, the reason the alternative health industry exists is because of how poorly doctors treat patients. Yet when it comes to poor treatment, the medical industry can’t hold a candle to the airlines. So why is there no alternative airline industry? [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Why is […]
Pandering to anti-vaxxers, La Leche League reveals willingness to ignore scientific evidence
In the wake of the Charlottesville rally of white supremacists in 2017, resulting in the murder of a counter-protester, Donald Trump uttered these immortal words: You also had some very fine people on both sides. With that ugly claim, Trump signaled his sympathy with racists. Is Trump a racist? As Sen. Cory Booker recently pointed […]
Why do natural childbirth & lactation professionals ignore the needs of survivors of sexual violence?
The statistics are staggering. Up to 1 in 3 American women experience sexual violence during their lifetime. Nearly 20% of adult women recall an episode of childhood sexual abuse or assault. These women often have different needs around childbirth and breastfeeding and those needs are routinely ignored by natural childbirth and lactation professionals. [pullquote align=”right” […]
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
