The Skeptical OB

Childbirth is a reproductive rights issue. Every woman deserves access to high quality obstetric care, and every woman deserves access to state of the art pain relief. That’s because medicalizing birth is a feminist triumph and all women should be able to share in its benefits. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”A possible death […]

It used to be that sex was tightly culturally regulated and mothering had no oversight. In 2019, in industrialized countries mothering is tightly culturally regulated and sex has no oversight. What happened? For most of recorded history, there were regulations about who could have sex with whom, who pursued and who was expected to resist. […]

Babies die. The most critical difference between obstetricians and homebirth midwives is their response to these tragic deaths: When faced with a dead baby obstetricians ask, “How can we prevent this from ever happening again?” In contrast, homebirth midwives ask, “How can we avoid responsibility?” [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I want a bumper […]

Can women be empowered by a philosophy designed to re-domesticate them? Yesterday I asked whether women can be empowered by the philosophy of natural mothering, a philosophy created for the express purpose of oppressing them. Thinking further, it occurs to me that there is a better way to frame the issue. Natural mothering advocates seek […]

In the good old days, women knew their place: in the home, repeatedly pregnant, breastfeeding, and in continual proximity to their children. They wouldn’t dare compete with men since they didn’t have the time or energy to do so. In the past century, for the first time in history women in some countries achieved a […]

OMG! OMG! OMG! Growing ‘brexting’ habit of texting on phones while breastfeeding newborns is damaging relationships between mums and their babies. The horror!!! [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Breastfeeding promotion is, and has always been, about pressuring women to ignore their own needs and desires.[/pullquote] Health authorities are warning new mothers that scrolling on […]

Add this new study to the long list of papers that claim to show the benefits of breastfeeding through mathematical modeling. According to The cost of not breastfeeding: global results from a new tool: The results of the analysis using the tool show that 595 379 childhood deaths (6 to 59 months) from diarrhoea and pneumonia […]

You might think that Oregon homebirth midwives would be shocked into action by their hideous death rates. You would be wrong. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Who cares about dead babies? Not Oregon homebirth midwives.[/pullquote] In August 2010, Melissa Cheyney, then Director of Research for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) and also […]

The history of foot binding is a history of women’s pain. According to Amanda Foreman, writing for Smithsonian Magazine: A small foot in China, no different from a tiny waist in Victorian England, represented the height of female refinement. For families with marriageable daughters, foot size translated into its own form of currency and a […]

It’s just the kind of evidence I have been looking for. I’ve relentlessly hammered the point that although small studies suggest that breastfeeding has benefits in industrialized countries, population data has failed to demonstrate the predicted benefits in real world experience. The decreases in infant mortality of term babies, reduced incidence of various conditions and […]