The Skeptical OB

Breastfeeding is the biological norm. So right-handedness. So is heterosexuality. So is continuing unwanted pregnancy. Why do lactivists give moral authority to nature when it comes to breastfeeding but deny that same moral authority when handedness, sexuality and unwanted pregnancy are involved? Why do they pathologize women who don’t breastfeed, encouraging moral condemnation, but would […]

I’d like to propose a new term: breastsuffering. Breastsuffering refers to the large and growing toll of aggressive breastfeeding promotion. Breastsuffering encompasses breastfeeding starvation, breastfeeding suffocation and breastfeeding skull fractures for babies and breastfeeding guilt, anxiety and depression for mothers. Sadly, lactation professionals and lactivists have become apologists for breastsuffering. More than three decades ago […]

One of the best things about having four children is that you quickly learn that each is an individual from the moment of birth. One infant loves to be snuggled; another hates it. One baby is soothed by a pacifier; another refuses it altogether. One child is constantly striving for new experiences and milestones; another […]

One of the most amazing traits of human beings is the ability to empathize with others. We don’t have to lose a parent to imagine how devastating the loss of a parent could be and therefore we offer our support. We don’t have to experience a divorce to imagine how devastating the end of a […]