The Skeptical OB

It has long been known that C-sections are safer for babies than vaginal birth. Now a new study on maternal request C-sections shows that they may be safer for mothers. As the Times of London explains, Cesarean section no riskier for mother or baby: Women who plan to have a caesarean section are no more […]

Medical patients are uniquely vulnerable. Ill, in pain and immersed in a system where the professionals seem to speak a foreign language, hospitalized individuals require special ethical and legal protections to make sure healthcare providers do not take advantage of them. That’s especially true for unconscious individuals who are incapable of speaking for themselves. There […]

Patching up False Dichotomies in the Birth Subculture by anthropologist Jessie K. Tougas should be required reading for all midwifery students. Some birth scholars (Melissa Cheyney, Robbie Davis-Floyd, and Elizabeth Davis) have argued that there are two models of birth that value different kinds of knowledge. They assert that the “technocratic” model has been adopted […]

Hi, there, it’s Ima Frawde, Tooth-wife and I’m here to educate you about Spiritual Tooth-wifery. I trained as a dental hygienist but that doesn’t sound particularly impressive — especially when compared to dentists who have initials like DMD and DDS after their names — so my friends and I created our own credential, the RTW […]

Three words provoke horror in natural childbirth advocates: maternal request Cesarean! How dare women choose to bypass the excruciating pain and terror of hours of labor and vaginal birth? How dare women do everything possible to protect the health and brain function of their children? How dare women take control of their own bodies to […]

Here’s a recent comment from The Skeptical OB Facebook page: I love how this page tries so desperately to falsely reassure obese people that it’s ok to be obese and there will be no long term complications to your health. It’s mental snake oil and people are eating this page up. It’s similar to many […]

Do you tell yourself you and your friends are the only ones who see the lies? Do you mock those who believe in expertise or follow the mainstream media? Do you deride as “sheeple” those who respect authority? The joke’s on you! You are a denialemming … so busy reassuring yourself of your insight and […]

The most common mistakes of science denialists are mistakes of logic. They assume that what “makes sense” to them is automatically true. Thomas Kida, a professor at the UMass Isenberg School of Management, explains why this assumption is unjustified in his book Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking. […]

My email and Facebook messages are filled with the same question over and over again: Are the new COVID vaccines safe for use in pregnancy? I don’t know … and the truth is that no one knows. Yet the American College of Obstetrician Gynecologists (ACOG) is recommending the vaccine for pregnant persons. They have issued […]

Over the past four years it has become increasingly clear that many Americans are suffering from the sickness of science denial. It’s a dangerous infection that profoundly weakens the body politic, is transmitted through the air(waves), and mutates easily, making it difficult to control. As with any illness it helps to recognize the symptoms so […]