The Skeptical OB

I’m reading a fascinating book about the history of conservativism, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump by Corey Robin. It’s offers an illuminating view of contemporary politics, but what has struck me most forcibly is something the author never intended. It’s an amazing explication of the political forces behind the contemporary […]

It’s inexplicable on its face. Tens of thousands of babies are readmitted to the hospital each year for breastfeeding complications at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Exclusive breastfeeding is now the leading cause of newborn hospital readmission. Not a single lactivist organization or public health organization — not La Leche League, not […]

The stories, tragic as they are, begin to run together in my mind. I’m not talking about the part where the baby dies an easily preventable death (nearly all homebirth deaths are preventable) … and according to the most accurate data available, homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death 9-fold or more. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” […]

Yesterday I wrote about the vicious treatment — the “Semmelweis treatment” — of the Fed Is Best Foundation. I explained that lactation professionals demonize Fed Is Best for the same reasons Semmelweis’ colleagues demonized him when he identified that doctors were spreading childbed fever. They can’t bear to acknowledge that they might be harming patients. […]

It was a tragedy in every respect. Dr. Ignác Semmelweis was an obstetric physician in 19th century Vienna. He … was appointed to Vienna General Hospital in 1846. There, he became aware of a puzzling disparity. The hospital offered two free maternity clinics for economically disadvantaged women. First Clinic was run by all-male doctors and […]

You can’t make this stuff up! If Lamaze International and Hannah Dahlen wanted to demonstrate their contempt for the wellbeing of mothers and babies, they couldn’t do better than to promote Robert Biter as a feature speaker at their Australian conference. Nothing illustrates contempt for women quite like featuring a doctor stripped of his license […]

I suspect that Lucy Ruddle, IBCLC feels put upon by me. First I took her to task for her meme that analogized formula to cake. I created this: Then she implied that anyone who recommends formula supplementation for starving babies is trying to “sabotage” breastfeeding mothers. I created this to express my incredulity that a […]

My email inbox is filled with messages from women who hate themselves, blame themselves and are nearly incapacitated by guilt at being unable to breastfeed exclusively. Why? It’s certainly not because breastfeeding in industrialized countries is so beneficial for babies that it has a measurable impact on mortality rates, life expectancy or IQ. Walk into […]

If our ancient foremothers could see Tracy Cassells, PhD, of Evolutionary Parenting (and other parenting “experts” like her) they wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry. We as humans have evolved in a particular manner, and the parent-child relationship is no different. Children, especially babies, expect certain behaviours from their caregivers and research is starting […]

I was lucky to do my internship and residency at the first hospital to have a Patient’s Bill of Rights, Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital. The Patient’s Bill of Rights was based on the belief that doctors and nurses owed patients MORE than merely excellent treatment; they owed them compassionate and ethical care. It reflected the […]