One of the most pernicious of the many pernicious aspects of breastfeeding promotion is the insistence by lactation consultants that all women can make enough breastmilk to fully nourish an infant. Not only is it factually false, but it has given impetus to two additional erroneous beliefs: 1. Insistence that low supply is a misperception […]
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Actually homebirth DID cause your daughter’s struggles
Psychological defense mechanisms are strategies that protect people from emotional distress: [They are] brought into play by the unconscious mind to manipulate, deny, or distort reality in order to defend against feelings of anxiety and unacceptable impulses and to maintain one’s self [image]. Denial is one of the most primitive and most powerful defense mechanisms: […]
If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail; if you’re only a midwife, every woman looks like she needs a normal birth
There’s an old saying that if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It means that if you only know how to do one thing, you will insist that is what needs to be done. Consider, for a moment, the possibility that there was a handyman, Bob, who only knew how to […]
Lessons from the newborn vitamin K debacle
In the last few years a deadly disorder that we thought was vanquished has begun to reappear. The disorder is hemorrhagic disease of the newborn, also known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding. It can lead to life hemorrhage into the infant gut, and neurologically threatening hemorrhage into the infant brain. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Natural […]
Could anyone be more tone deaf in response to criticism than midwives and lactivists?
I’ve spent the past 12 years writing about the dangers of radical midwifery and lactivism. Surprising, I recently acquired powerful new allies: midwives and lactivists themselves. Their mind boggling tone-deafness in responding to media criticism reinforces — in a truly nauseating way — the central point of all my writing: natural childbirth advocates and lactivists […]
WEIRD women have hijacked childbirth and breastfeeding
Childbirth and breastfeeding have been hijacked by WEIRD women. No, I don’t mean that natural childbirth advocates and lactivists are weird, they’re WEIRD: Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries. It’s a term from psychology highlighting the fact that the bulk of psychology research is done on Western, educated people from industrialized, rich, […]
Preventable deaths are the inevitable result of the radicalization of midwifery
Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas about childbirth have deadly consequences. That’s the take home message from the shuttering of the UK Campaign for Normal Birth. Midwives promoted process (normal birth) over outcome (healthy babies and mothers) and, inevitably, babies and mothers died. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when midwives were guardians […]
Hannah Dahlen and Sheena Byrom think dead babies are “fake news”
Scores of babies died preventable deaths, nearly £2bn was paid out in compensation in the past year alone, and multiple investigations have put the blame squarely on the midwives’ “Campaign for Normal Birth.” How have midwives responded? Australian midwife Hannah Dahlen made this repugnant claim: For all those UK midwives feeling hammered this week by […]
Dear Melinda Gates, an open letter on breastfeeding
Dear Ms. Gates, I hope I can take a moment of your time to talk about an issue that it is dear to both our hearts, albeit for different reasons. You’re a mother of three children; I’m a mother of four. You breastfed your children; I breastfed mine. You promote breastfeeding worldwide to improve the […]
What the UK midwifery leadership has in common with Donald Trump: they’re bullies.
Over the last few days British newspapers have been filled with articles about Royal College of Midwives shuttering their “Campaign for Normal Birth.” One of the best appeared yesterday in the The Guardian. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]They smash things up, refuse to accept responsibility, then blame everyone else for their own failings.[/pullquote] […]
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
