Regular readers know that I have written several posts about the 39 week rule. It is supposed to be a ban on elective deliveries before 39 weeks, but has devolved into a ban against any deliveries before 39 weeks, with the predictable consequence of preventable perinatal deaths. Tamara Bennett believes that the 39 week rule [...]
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The “sickeningly sweet poison” of homebirth advocacy continues to flow
Tara Dukaczewicz generously gave permission to reprint her Facebook comment as a guest post: Rewind to this time a year and half ago, my baby was 5 months old and I was firmly entrenched in the online natural childbirth community. My favorite was Birth without Fear. I was researching home birth midwifery for my next [...]
The professional homebirth advocate’s most important tool
What’s the most important tool of any professional homebirth advocate? It’s the delete button, of course! At every level of homebirth advocacy, from clowns like The Feminist Breeder, through organizations like Lamaze; from self-proclaimed “experts” in obstetrical research like Henci Goer to people with academic credentials like Darcia Narvaez, PhD, the delete button is integral [...]
The Orwellian language of natural childbirth advocacy
In the dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell introduced the idea that vocabulary has the power to control thought. In 1984, the government, in an effort to control citizens and force them into submission, perverts the meaning of common words and phrases to promote approved views and stamp out unapproved views. The classic example of this [...]
Why do lactivists think it is okay to let babies scream for hours from hunger?
Last week we heard from a cardiologist who related her experience of being made to suffer in an effort to promote breastfeeding. But how about babies? Aren’t they suffering, too? It’s ironic when you think about it. Many of the same people who refuse infant eye ointment because the baby might be distressed by blurry [...]
A cardiologist’s experience with a “baby friendly” hospital
A guest post from a practicing cardiologist: Before getting pregnant, I had never set foot in our L&D ward. My only interaction with OB’s was when they needed ICU beds for their sickest patients (severe preeclampsia, catastrophic bleeding, amniotic fluid embolism, you catch my drift). From treating these patients, I have no illusions whatsoever about [...]
Pounding the table
Lawyers say: If you have the facts, pound the facts. If you have the law, pound the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table. I guess the obstetrical equivalent would be: If you have the experience, pound the experience. If you have the scientific evidence, pound the evidence. [...]
Thinking about homebirth? You must watch this video.
Over the years, I’ve talked with many people about homebirth and there is one thing that really stands out. The vast majority of people, whether laypeople, journalists or even homebirth advocates themselves, don’t realize that homebirth midwives aren’t real midwives. They don’t know that homebirth midwives (certified professional midwives or CPMs) are a second, inferior [...]
Claiming that epidurals harm babies is like claiming that abortions cause cancer
Earlier this year New Hampshire’s Tea Party controlled House of Representatives passed a bill mandating that doctors inform women that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. There’s just one problem: there’s no scientific evidence that this claim is true, and copious evidence that it is not. According to the Huffington Post: The bill, sponsored [...]
Are we supposed to be impressed you risked your baby’s life at homebirth?
Homebirth advocates are braggarts. Perhaps there’s a homebirth advocate who has treated homebirth as an intimate family event, but I haven’t heard of it. The mode of birth is part of the birth announcement, no opportunity to boast about it goes unfulfilled, and, most importantly, video is posted on line so that all 7 billion [...]
Amy Tuteur, MD
Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician gynecologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1979 and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She left the practice of medicine to raise her four children. Her book, How Your Baby Is Born, an illustrated guide to pregnancy, labor and delivery was published by Ziff-Davis Press in 1994. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com.
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