Natural childbirth and homebirth advocates have serious problems with basic logic and that is often highlighted in their criticisms of me. Notice that I refer to criticism of me, not criticisms of my claims or analyses. That’s because NCB and homebirth advocates know that they cannot rebut my empirical claims; most of them have never even read the scientific literature that I present and discuss and most of them have problems with basic arithmetic, let alone statistics.
My personal favorite, because it is so nonsensical, is “don’t listen to Dr. Amy because she hasn’t practiced in years.”
It reminds me of that old joke about the patient facing surgery:
“Doctor, doctor, will I be able to play the violin after the operation?”
“Yes, of course…”
“Great! I never could before!”
We laugh because we recognize that if he couldn’t play the violin before, he won’t be able to play the violin after regardless of whether or not he has surgery.
Similarly, if obstetricians, pediatricians and neonatologists have not revised their view that homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death, homebirth is still unsafe, regardless of whether or not I have been in practice.
The reality is that I represent the mainstream of contemporary medical practice. The overwhelming majority of obstetricians, pediatricians and neonatologists agreed with me 20 years ago and they agree with me today: homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death.
After all, what has changed in the interim?
American homebirth midwives still don’t meet the educational and training standards of all other midwives in the first world.
There is still no evidence that American homebirth midwives are safe practitioners.
The statistics that have been generated in the past decade confirm that homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death.
The only thing that has changed in the interim is that more babies have died preventable deaths because their mothers, lacking basic knowledge of obstetrics, science and statistics, have trouble thinking logically about the dangers of homebirth.
