The Skeptical OB

Every complex problem has a simple solution … and it is wrong. According to lactation professionals, the “problem” of low breastfeeding rates has a simple solution. Just end formula advertising and societal pressure to bottlefeed and all women would breastfeed successfully, exclusively and for extended periods. They’re wrong. But even worse, they’ve leveraged their “simple […]

On Monday I wrote about the pseudoscience of bonding. It pseudoscience with a purpose. The purpose is to control mothers. When the contemporary medicalization of attachment was proposed in the late 1970’s, there was no evidence we were experiencing an epidemic of “detached” children. Today, in the late 2010’s, it’s clear that the extensive implementation […]

Philosophy professor Fiona Woollard has written a fascinating paper on the issue of breastfeeding and maternal duties entitled Is It Okay to Let My Child Be Stung by a Wasp? New mothers report feeling shamed for not breastfeeding, and constantly having to defend their use of infant formula from strangers on social media or in […]

Nearly everything you think you know about mother-infant bonding is untrue … and that’s not an accident. Where did the pseudoscientific beliefs about bonding come from and why did they appear when they did? It wasn’t because we were experiencing an epidemic of unbonded children. Why have pseudoscientific beliefs been maintained for the past generation? […]

It started with a sign. Please let us know if you hire a doula during your pregnancy as Dr. Aguayo has decided not to collaborate with doulas or other lay support people… Please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns at your appointment. It has escalated to a full fledged attack on a doctor […]

I’ve written repeatedly about the toll of illness, injury and death that the relentless promotion of breastfeeding takes on babies. That’s because it is easy to see the damage: tens of thousands of babies readmitted to the hospital each year, as well as babies who suffer permanent brain injuries or even die due to dehydration, […]

It is the LEADING risk factor for newborn hospital readmission. It is responsible for the hospitalization of TENS OF THOUSANDS of newborn babies each year, not to mention an untold number of brain injuries and deaths from dehydration, hyperbilirubinemia and hypoglycemia. And yet, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to promote it. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” […]

Breastfeeding is the biological norm. So right-handedness. So is heterosexuality. So is continuing unwanted pregnancy. Why do lactivists give moral authority to nature when it comes to breastfeeding but deny that same moral authority when handedness, sexuality and unwanted pregnancy are involved? [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Why do lactivists pathologize women who don’t […]

I’d like to propose a new term: breastsuffering. Breastsuffering refers to the large and growing toll of aggressive breastfeeding promotion. Breastsuffering encompasses breastfeeding starvation, breastfeeding suffocation and breastfeeding skull fractures for babies and breastfeeding guilt, anxiety and depression for mothers. Sadly, lactation professionals and lactivists have become apologists for breastsuffering. More than three decades ago […]

One of the best things about having four children is that you quickly learn that each is an individual from the moment of birth. One infant loves to be snuggled; another hates it. One baby is soothed by a pacifier; another refuses it altogether. One child is constantly striving for new experiences and milestones; another […]