The Skeptical OB

One of the most pernicious of the many pernicious aspects of breastfeeding promotion is the insistence by lactation consultants that all women can make enough breastmilk to fully nourish an infant. Not only is it factually false, but it has given impetus to two additional erroneous beliefs: 1. Insistence that low supply is a misperception […]

Psychological defense mechanisms are strategies that protect people from emotional distress: [They are] brought into play by the unconscious mind to manipulate, deny, or distort reality in order to defend against feelings of anxiety and unacceptable impulses and to maintain one’s self [image]. Denial is one of the most primitive and most powerful defense mechanisms: […]

There’s an old saying that if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It means that if you only know how to do one thing, you will insist that is what needs to be done. Consider, for a moment, the possibility that there was a handyman, Bob, who only knew how to […]

In the last few years a deadly disorder that we thought was vanquished has begun to reappear. The disorder is hemorrhagic disease of the newborn, also known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding. It can lead to life hemorrhage into the infant gut, and neurologically threatening hemorrhage into the infant brain. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Natural […]

I’ve spent the past 12 years writing about the dangers of radical midwifery and lactivism. Surprising, I recently acquired powerful new allies: midwives and lactivists themselves. Their mind boggling tone-deafness in responding to media criticism reinforces — in a truly nauseating way — the central point of all my writing:  natural childbirth advocates and lactivists […]

Childbirth and breastfeeding have been hijacked by WEIRD women. No, I don’t mean that natural childbirth advocates and lactivists are weird, they’re WEIRD: Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries. It’s a term from psychology highlighting the fact that the bulk of psychology research is done on Western, educated people from industrialized, rich, […]

Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas about childbirth have deadly consequences. That’s the take home message from the shuttering of the UK Campaign for Normal Birth. Midwives promoted process (normal birth) over outcome (healthy babies and mothers) and, inevitably, babies and mothers died. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when midwives were guardians […]

Scores of babies died preventable deaths, nearly £2bn was paid out in compensation in the past year alone, and multiple investigations have put the blame squarely on the midwives’ “Campaign for Normal Birth.” How have midwives responded? Australian midwife Hannah Dahlen made this repugnant claim: For all those UK midwives feeling hammered this week by […]

Dear Ms. Gates, I hope I can take a moment of your time to talk about an issue that it is dear to both our hearts, albeit for different reasons. You’re a mother of three children; I’m a mother of four. You breastfed your children; I breastfed mine. You promote breastfeeding worldwide to improve the […]

Over the last few days British newspapers have been filled with articles about Royal College of Midwives shuttering their “Campaign for Normal Birth.” One of the best appeared yesterday in the The Guardian. [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]They smash things up, refuse to accept responsibility, then blame everyone else for their own failings.[/pullquote] […]