There’s nothing wrong with breastfeeding. There’s a tremendous amount wrong with the lactation profession. How can that be? Aren’t lactation professionals simply promoting breastfeeding? That was probably how it started out, but they quickly became obsessed with exclusivity; that fetish is harming babies and mothers. I can’t tell you when the obsession started; it certainly […]
The term birthrape didn’t work out so well for the natural childbirth industry. It was in vogue for several years, but generated not the outrage at obstetricians that midwives and doulas were hoping for, but rather revulsion at their appropriation of the suffering of rape victims to publicize their cause. The new term is obstetric […]
A new paper confirms what we have known for several years: the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is a failure on its own terms. I’m not talking about the fact that it harms babies with its dubious “achievement” of making exclusive breastfeeding the leading risk factor for newborn re-hospitalization leading to tens of thousands of re-hospitalizations […]
In the summer of 2000 I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I had developed double vision because a benign tumor, a meningioma, was pressing on the nerve that controlled the movement of one of my eyes. The tumor was small, but located deep in my brain. That meant that surgery to remove it would […]
It’s truly amazing the lengths to which lactation professionals will go to avoid having to address the elephant in the room. They’ll even invite me to lunch! What’s the elephant? Exclusive breastfeeding has become the LEADING risk factor for newborn re-hospitalization. As many as 1 in 71 exclusively breastfed babies will be re-hospitalized. That means […]
MyMilk Labs launches Mylee, a small sensor that analyzes breast milk at home is the title of a recent piece on TechCrunch: Parents often worry about if their babies are getting enough nutrition or if they are producing enough milk. MyMilk Labs wants to give nursing mothers more information with Mylee, a sensor that scans […]
Honestly, are there any bigger hypocrites than natural mothering advocates? Their philosophy is based on the belief that childbirth and breastfeeding evolved to be perfect. They tell themselves and each other that women are perfectly “designed” (or evolved, if you prefer) to give birth vaginally without pain medication and therefore that must be best. Women […]
It’s the central obsession at the heart of contemporary breastfeeding promotion, and it serves as a justification for the shaming tactics so beloved of lactivists. It’s the fantasy that the formula industry is waging war on breastfeeding. Don’t get me wrong; the formula industry is trying to make money. And, yes, decades ago they engaged […]
The Fed Is Best movement has completely changed the conversation around breastfeeding. True, they haven’t yet gotten lactation and health organizations to acknowledge outright that the benefits of breastfeeding term babies in industrialized countries are so trivial that they literally cannot be measured. But we (I consider myself part of the movement though I’m not […]
Lactation professionals are losing ground to the Fed Is Best movement. In their frustration they are preparing to lash out, taking a page out of the Donald Trump playbook. How is the lactation leadership like Trump? Let me count the ways! 1. They are incredibly thin-skinned. Ever notice how lactation professionals — the same folks […]
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, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com... More
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