Another day, another crappy breastfeeding study. A new study was recently released by the Journal of Pediatrics purporting to show the benefit of breastmilk of neurocognitive development in premature infants. Unfortunately the study, Breast Milk Feeding, Brain Development, and Neurocognitive Outcomes: A 7-Year Longitudinal Study in Infants Born at Less Than 30 Weeks’ Gestation, is […]
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World Breastfeeding Week challenge for lactivists
Prepare yourself! Next week is World Breastfeeding Week. Prepare yourself for an onslaught of articles, and podcasts and tweets rhapsodizing about the benefits of breastfeeding as well as an onslaught of images of breastfeeding stunts — breastfeeding in uniform, in evening gowns or naked outdoors — ironically designed to “normalize” breastfeeding. Prepare yourself for a disingenuous […]
Let’s normalize vaccination because vaccines are love
Lactivists are constantly nattering on about “normalizing” breastfeeding. They are absolutely convinced that baring their breasts on Facebook and Twitter will encourage more women to breastfeed their babies. In their view, breastfeeding fell out of favor due to a concerted assault by formula companies on women’s comfort with breastfeeding. In other words, it was social […]
No one should be exulting about lowering late preterm births until we figure out who died as a result
Imagine that I published a paper crowing that the US had reduced the use of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is expensive, arduous and has a plethora of terrible complications up to and including death. We would save lots of money and prevent lots of serious complications. A victory, right? Wrong! [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Lowering […]
How we know that cigarettes cause lung cancer and vaccines DON’T cause autism
Even those who can’t tell the difference between a t-test and a chi-square are familiar with a basic principle of epidemiology: correlation does not equal causation. Just because Event A happened before Disease B, it does not mean that A caused B. For example, in last 100 years deaths from infectious diseases has declined precipitously. […]
Why do people believe in vaccine conspiracies but not antibiotic conspiracies?
They utterly changed the nature of infectious disease. Communicable diseases that had previously wiped out wide swathes of the population could be controlled with simple injections. Deaths dropped dramatically. They became ubiquitous and virtually mandatory. The companies that manufactured them became extraordinarily wealthy and developed into large multinational conglomerates. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” […]
Natural childbirth and victimhood
The most over-used word in natural childbirth discourse is “empowerment.” But an equally important concept, one that is rarely spoken aloud but is central to natural childbirth advocacy, is victimization. To a greater or less extent, natural childbirth advocates take it for granted that they are victims … of men, of doctors (almost always portrayed […]
I only had a minor childbirth injury so why am I incontinent?
Yesterday I wrote about childbirth injuries. They’re common, lead to life long disability and distress and are a subject of deep embarrassment for many women. I discussed the two most serious forms of childbirth injury: obstetric fistula, a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum or both; and severe vaginal tears that can […]
The truth about childbirth injuries
Cosmopolitan Magazine recently published an amazing piece on childbirth injuries, Millions of Women Are Injured During Childbirth. Why aren’t doctors diagnosing them? Why do childbirth injuries occur? [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Childbirth injuries are common, lead to life long disability and distress and are a subject of deep embarrassment for many women.[/pullquote] The […]
Do you know what lactivism and creationism have in common?
I’ve been quoted extensively in the mainstream media about breastfeeding. In nearly every case I mention that I breastfed four children relatively easily and I (and they) enjoyed it. Nonetheless I caution that the benefits of breastfeeding have been grossly exaggerated and that what passes for breastfeeding “science” is generally based on data that is […]
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
