On the eve of World Breastfeeding Week 2018, I’m reminded of the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes: …about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent – while in reality, they make no clothes at […]
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Is the US over-counting maternal deaths?
The mainstream media is filled with stories claiming that the US maternal death rate has risen dramatically since 1990. The latest effort comes from USA Today, Hospitals know how to protect mothers. They just aren’t doing it. The vast majority of women in America give birth without incident. But each year, more than 50,000 are […]
What pragmatic opioid trials can teach us about childbirth and breastfeeding
Aaron Carroll had a fabulous piece in yesterday’s New York Times entitled What if a Study Showed Opioids Weren’t Usually Needed? Participants were randomly assigned to one of two arms. Both involved stepwise progression from less to more potent medications. One arm involved opioid medications (a progression from hydrocodone/acetaminophen to sustained release morphine to fentanyl […]
Why do doulas claim they can reduce maternal mortality? Follow the money!
On Saturday I came across this tweet by one of the authors of the award winning ProPublica series on maternal mortality, Lost Mothers. Very excited to be speaking today at DONA International 2018 Summit to a group of women who have done so much to protect other women from becoming Lost Mothers: doulas. What have […]
The natural parenting conundrum: is a healthy baby all that matters?
There’s a tremendous overlap between natural childbirth advocates and lactivists. That leads to the central conundrum of natural parenting: IS a healthy baby all that matters or ISN’T it? Natural childbirth advocates believe they know the answer. According to Milli Hill, writing in 2014, a healthy baby is NOT all that matters: [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” […]
Sorry Dr. Meek, breastfeeding isn’t a public health achievement at all, let alone the greatest one!
I don’t know Dr. Joan Y. Meek, Chair of the Section on Breastfeeding of the American Academy of Pediatrics, but I do know ridiculous hyperbole when I see it. Sadly, Dr. Meek is aggressively promoting it. Meek wrote a piece, Breastfeeding has been the best public health policy throughout history, which has been republished in […]
Breastfeeding advocacy and the difference between could, should and would
Breastfeeding or formula feeding? It’s a choice that provokes strong feelings, particularly among those who identify themselves as breastfeeding professionals. It often seems that there is a huge gulf between organizations like La Leche League, whose avowed goal is to promote breastfeeding and Fed Is Best, whose avowed goal is to promote safe infant feeding […]
Formula fed babies are overfed? Only if you redefine underfed as normal and normal as overfed!
Breastfeeding professionals are sure that breastfed infants are healthier than those who are formula fed. There’s just one problem; they can’t find evidence to support that belief. Countries with the lowest breastfeeding rates have the LOWEST infant mortality and countries with the highest infant mortality have the highest breastfeeding rates. Most of the claimed health […]
What do natural childbirth and breastfeeding advocates have in common with teenage boys? Both lie to women to control them.
If gynecologists had a nickel for every time a teenage girl told them some version of the following, they’d be billionaires: My boyfriend said I couldn’t get pregnant if we had sex standing up… My boyfriend said I couldn’t get pregnant if I hadn’t had my first period… My boyfriend said I couldn’t get pregnant […]
Breastfeeding advocacy and the culture of contempt
Last week I wrote about conventional wisdom and used the example of stomach ulcers. When I started medical school, the conventional wisdom was that stomach ulcers were caused by excess acid. The conventional wisdom was loud, pervasive and impossible to ignore. Whole careers in gastroenterology had been staked on maintaining its veracity. When that veracity […]
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
