The Skeptical OB

In the 21st Century United States we speak disparagingly of superstition. Superstition is supposedly a feature of backward, indigenous cultures, not our culture. According to Wikipedia: Superstition is a pejorative term for any belief or practice that is considered irrational or supernatural: for example, if it arises from ignorance, a misunderstanding of science or causality, […]

Is there anyone more patronizing then the doctor who visits an indigenous culture and — imagining himself as doing nothing but good — goes where he is not wanted, is a poor guest, allows personal goals to take priority over the goals of the natives, fails to match technology to the needs of the local […]

Everything old is new again and that applies to demonic possession. Only now some people call it “vaccine injuries.” Demonic possession is believed by some to be the process by which individuals are possessed by malevolent preternatural beings, commonly referred to as demons or devils. Historically it has been used to explain symptoms and illnesses […]

Formula is Feminist! That’s the title of my latest piece for Slate. As I’ve written repeatedly over the years: her baby, her body, her breasts, her choice! Therefore, the decision of the British Medical Journal to ban formula advertising is deeply anti-feminist: Formula is a legitimate solution to what is often a serious health problem […]

It is so vicious as to seem inexplicable. According to CNN: Not long ago, a 4-year-old boy died of the flu. His mother, under doctor’s orders, watched his two little brothers like a hawk, terrified they might get sick and die, too. Grieving and frightened, just days after her son’s death she checked her Facebook […]

One of the most disturbing things about the natural childbirth and lactivists movements is the way they treat our distant foremothers; they treat them the same way we tend to treat all people who are non-white and non-industrialized, as one mass of undifferentiated, never changing animals. It seems to have never occurred to them that […]

Women’s biology has always been used against them and to control them. For example, although pregnancy requires two people — one male, one female — only women get pregnant, carry babies and give birth. Therefore, women can be coerced and manipulated through government and economic policies around access to birth control and pregnancy termination. [pullquote […]

Apparently, the term birthrape didn’t work out so well for the natural childbirth industry. It was in vogue for several years, but generated not the outrage at obstetricians that midwives and doulas were hoping for, but rather revulsion at their appropriation of the suffering of rape victims to publicize their cause. The new term is […]

Lactation professional Prof. Amy Brown was apprised that one of her slides at a recent conference on “holistic” infant sleep could be construed as racist. Brown predictably responded as she does to any criticism: with fury. But she’d been called out on a tendency that it is all too common in birth and breastfeeding communities: […]

The recently revealed college admissions bribery scandal is, of course, a story of money and privilege. But there’s an aspect that’s receiving less attention even though it may be more important. The scheme is the inevitable result of contemporary mothering philosophy — performative mothering — that treats children as maternal props from birth. According to […]