To date there has not been a single US study that shows that homebirth in the US is safe. All the existing studies show that US birth at home has a perinatal death rate from 3-9X higher than comparable risk hospital birth. Until now. A recently published study from Washington State shows how homebirth COULD […]
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This slur should be banned from the lactivist lexicon
It’s appalling to find that at the outset of the year 2022, lactation professionals are still using their favorite slur. Do they continue to use the slur because they think women are inherently untrustworthy? Do they continue to use the slur because they refuse to learn from scientific evidence? Or do they continue to use […]
How the social construction of breastfeeding leads to recommendations that are often faulty and sometimes deadly
If you want to understand contemporary lactivism — and its tenets that exist independent of or even in direct opposition to — scientific evidence, you need to understand the social movements behind them. The phrase ”breast is best” is a social construct masquerading as a medical claim. Contemporary lactivism owes its origins to two social […]
“Breast Is Best” is a social construct masquerading as a medical claim
Why do so many good mothers feel bad about breastfeeding? Why has breastfeeding become the leading risk factor for newborn hospital readmission resulting in tens of thousands of readmissions each year? Why have none of the benefits predicted for term babies (decreased mortality, severe morbidity and healthcare expenditures) come to pass? It’s because “breast is […]
US government REMOVES exclusive breastfeeding as a hospital quality metric!
In a victory for both babies and mothers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has REMOVED exclusive breastfeeding rate as a hospital quality metric! Specifically, the government removed PC-05. What is PC-05? PC-05 assesses the rate of newborns exclusively fed breast milk during the newborn’s entire hospitalization. As I’ve written in the past, […]
What if higher socioeconomic status CAUSES breastfeeding?
Countless studies have demonstrated a high correlation between breastfeeding and all sorts of desirable health and economic outcomes from reduced infant mortality to reduced obesity, from higher IQ to higher educational achievement. That’s led breastfeeding researchers to erroneously conclude that breastfeeding CAUSES improved outcomes. In fact nearly all studies attributing benefits to breastfeeding are riddled […]
New Lancet paper does NOT show that breastfeeding reduces post-neonatal mortality
There’s a new study in The Lancet that claims to show that breastfeeding saves lives. According to Breastfeeding and Post-perinatal Infant Deaths in the United States, A National Prospective Cohort Analysis: Breastfeeding initiation is significantly associated with reduced odds of post-perinatal infant deaths in multiple racial and ethnic groups within the US population. These findings […]
How many dead babies does it take for a homebirth doctor to lose her license?
I’ve been writing about homebirth in one forum or another for more than 25 years. During that time I’ve seen some egregiously incompetent providers, but the case of Sarita Bennett, DO CPM, Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Midwives Alliance of North America may be the most chilling yet. Again and again and […]
The politics of ignorance
Ignorance is not merely an absence of knowledge. Sometimes it’s the product of a deliberate effort to replace knowledge with doubt or even lies. Classic examples come from business. The opioid crisis was triggered when Purdue Pharma lied to doctors about the addictive potential of OxyContin. We were told that it was not addictive so […]
What do anti-vaxxers mean when they talk about freedom?
First they refused to wear masks to protect themselves and prevent the transmission of the deadly coronavirus. Now they’re refusing to take a vaccine that will both protect them and reduce transmission of the disease. Why do they refuse? – In part it’s conservative Republican political motivations and the desire to signal loyalty. – In […]
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
