The Skeptical OB

Midwives are so busy congratulating themselves and each other that they’ve failed to notice that their philosophy of birth is being rejected. The latest example comes from a Stanford study. Despite decades of midwifery demonization of pain relief in labor, the US epidural rate has … risen. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Midwifery philosophy […]

In the ongoing effort to demonize C-sections, the association between C-sections and childhood obesity has received a lot of press. There have been numerous efforts to show that C-sections cause future obesity and a complex mechanism involving the gut microbiome has been proposed. But there’s always been a serious problem with such research; the failure […]

Medical ethicist Susanne Brauer has written: Obstetrics and midwifery are value-laden, value-producing and value-reproducing practices, values that constitute the social perception of what it means to be a ‘‘good’’ pregnant woman and to be a ‘‘good’’ (future) mother. Similarly, professional lactation support is also value-laden, value-producing and value-reproducing. There’s no better example of this behavior […]

Lactivist Prof. Amy Brown has a new piece on The Conversation this morning. It’s entitled Breastfeeding is not ‘easy’ – stop telling new mothers that it is and it’s a clumsy effort to deny that lactation professionals have spent the last decade pressuring, shaming and blaming women who can’t or don’t breastfeed. It’s difficult to […]

Lactivists are spluttering on Twitter. They’ve been apprised over and over again about the harm that they’ve caused: The epidemic of neonatal hospital readmissions (tens of thousands per year) for dehydration, hypoglycemia and jaundice. The permanent brain injuries and deaths that result. The heartless closing of well baby nurseries to force women to undertake full […]