tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59904320961488095372012-01-29T12:32:26.171-05:00Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.comBlogger7061100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-166444621789754212012-01-29T11:32:00.010-05:002012-01-29T12:32:26.178-05:00

Re: Inquiry into Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 and two related BillsI write to express my concern about the above bills. I understand that these bills will enable Medicare funding, access to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and professional indemnity premium support for midwives providing care for women to give birth in hospital. Medicare funding for

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-31202606502722165762012-01-26T16:08:00.006-05:002012-01-27T11:17:28.327-05:00

The CDC published an update on homebirth today. Entitled Home Births in the United States, 1990–2009 and written by MacDorman, Mathews, M.S. Declercq, the data brief noted:• After a decline from 1990 to 2004, the percentage of U.S. births that occurred at home increased by 29%, from 0.56% of births in 2004 to 0.72% in 2009.• For non-Hispanic white women, home births increased by 36%, from 0.80%

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-91334791300978873872012-01-26T08:02:00.003-05:002012-01-26T08:54:08.892-05:00

As I've written about repeatedly, natural childbirth and homebirth advocates have made a fetish of maternal mortality. They're not actually DOING anything about maternal mortality, but they are complaining about it and insinuating (or even claiming) that modern obstetrics is responsible for maternal deaths and that midwifery care would lower maternal mortality. But as a paper in the forthcoming

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-72493956636520321362012-01-25T07:50:00.004-05:002012-01-25T09:10:10.652-05:00

Maternal mortality has dropped 99% in the past 100 years. A maternal death is now, fortunately, a rare event. Attention, therefore, is shifting to maternal morbidity, in particular, life-threatening morbidity. The results of a new study are instructive.Near-Miss Maternal Mortality: Cardiac Dysfunction as the Principal Cause of Obstetric Intensive Care Unit Admissions by Small et al. will be

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-70041831462493974332012-01-24T08:41:00.005-05:002012-01-24T09:20:16.888-05:00

Today's post is brought to you by the student midwives writing on the website sponsored by the Royal College of Midwives. It is an object lesson in what happens when student midwives (and many graduate midwives) are confronted with scientific evidence that does not support their pre-existing beliefs. It's not a pretty sight.Here's the question posed by the OP (original poster):article stating 2

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-74923725211886662582012-01-23T07:37:00.003-05:002012-01-23T08:53:07.977-05:00

Those who were following the blog comments over the past weekend were treated to a display of narcissism so outsize as to astound nearly everyone who observed it.I am talking about a series of comments made by a homebirth mother who tried to convince us that her baby chose to die. And, if that's not bad enough, her baby chose to die as a gift to her.I wrote about the homebirth death nearly a year

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-68295063311007473942012-01-20T07:41:00.007-05:002012-01-20T10:05:13.761-05:00

I've been writing about sanctimommies for a number of years now, but only yesterday did I learn that there is sanctimommy manifesto and it's a festival of stupid.What is a sanctimommy?The sanctimommy knows how you should raise your children. Specifically, she knows what foods they should eat, what toys they should be allowed to play with; heck, sanctimommy even knows how you should have given

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-50455568343339038652012-01-19T07:33:00.003-05:002012-01-19T08:03:44.481-05:00

Can you imagine the sanctimommies of the world uniting to support all mothers regardless of the choices those mothers make?No, I can't either.But here's what such a pledge might look like:I PLEDGE to use my energy to help defuse dogmatic battles about what route of delivery, pain relief and interventions a woman chooses for childbirth. I further pledge to refrain from dogmatic battles about

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-80797279058019086232012-01-18T07:50:00.004-05:002012-01-18T09:19:56.098-05:00

Members of the British Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity SANDS, including Joshua Titcombe's parents James and Hoa, will visit Parliament today to present a major new report Preventing Babies' Deaths: what needs to be done.The report is a deeply moving and deeply distressing account of why babies die and what can be done to prevent those deaths.In 2010, 4,110 babies were stillborn; 1,850

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-57860076388072681972012-01-17T07:59:00.006-05:002012-01-17T09:41:51.491-05:00

Talk to a natural childbirth or homebirth advocate for more than a few minutes and you are bound to be treated to a disquisition on autonomy. There is the standard assertion on the right to control your own body,the rejection of paternalism in medicine and the insistence that it is the responsibility of the physicians and nurses to do whatever patients tell them. Invoking autonomy, therefore, is

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-15554570985099831632012-01-13T09:56:00.002-05:002012-01-13T10:25:30.824-05:00

You just can't make this stuff up.Over on Feministing, Ina May Gaskin suggests that feminists and other women can learn more about bodily autonomy by watching videos of ... elephants and chimps!Who knew that elephants were feminist? Who knew that elephant birth had anything to do with human birth? Ina May, that's who.The interviewer breathlessly explains:I asked Ina May what could our readers do

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-53885192754900914432012-01-12T07:13:00.002-05:002012-01-12T16:54:53.491-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about birthzillas, pregnant women who are hypersensitive, obsessively controlling, and rude to healthcare providers. They justify their behavior with the all purpose excuse "It's my special day."Several commenters took umbrage at the idea that a birth plan is the hallmark of a birthzilla. What's wrong with making a birth plan they ask? The answer: a lot.Birth plans engender

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-7018943428576371402012-01-11T09:55:00.003-05:002012-01-11T10:38:39.905-05:00

We've all heard about bridezillas, the women who are so obsessed with having the perfect wedding that they become tyrants toward everyone else. There's an argument to be made that many homebirth and natural childbirth advocates are "birthzillas" who justify their hypersensitivity, obsessive need for control, and rudeness to everyone else with the all purpose excuse "It's my special day."Consider:

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-72541180661379522332012-01-10T07:37:00.001-05:002012-01-10T08:34:27.706-05:00

Consider this portrayal of the online natural childbirth community: Natural childbirth website and blogs constitute is an online community consisting of a number of informational and personal webpages. They offer information and advice on how to achieve a natural birth including advice on nutrition strategies, natural remedies, affirmations and ways of thinking that help maintain commitment to

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-26013856473091930662012-01-09T07:28:00.012-05:002012-01-09T09:15:54.205-05:00

If there is one thing that natural childbirth advocates are very clear about it is supporting women's choices in childbirth. Women have the right to make whatever decisions they want about their own bodies. Therefore, NCB advocates loudly and wholeheartedly support Beyonce's decision to have a C-section.Wait, what? They DON'T support Beyonce's decision?Well maybe it's because it wasn't medically

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-25280953149679184772012-01-06T07:07:00.002-05:002012-01-06T08:27:01.716-05:00

Hi. My name is Ima Frawde, CPM. The initials after my name stand for "certified professional mammarist." I am an expert in normal breasts.I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of the hegemonic, patriarchal, male medical system that is constantly telling women that their breasts are "broken" and need to be scanned regularly to detect breast cancer. Breasts are designed perfectly.Are we

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-78966559743165270772012-01-05T08:48:00.001-05:002012-01-05T10:49:17.437-05:00

The Feminist Breeder (Gina Crosley-Corcoran) is upset. Here she was, thoughtfully contracting with a sponsor to video blog every moment of "her" home VBAC live and no one is grateful.You may recall me writing about the pathetic narcissism of live blogging a homebirth:Silly me. I though birth was about having a baby. Evidently not. Gina's baby is not mentioned even once. It's about Gina and her

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-27025225809979821252012-01-04T15:16:00.005-05:002012-01-04T15:53:24.521-05:00

I am extremely grateful to the readers, and especially the commentors, who made 2011 the best year ever for the Skeptical OB. There were more than 650,000 visits to the blog and over 58,000 comments! Thank you for a very good year.

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-82320415980181964372012-01-04T07:30:00.000-05:002012-01-04T07:32:59.944-05:00

It is axiomatic among natural childbirth advocates and homebirth advocates that an unmedicated childbirth is an empowering experience. I would like to make three claims about this. First, by definition, it is impossible to be empowered by a normal bodily function. Second, that the use of empowered in this setting bears no relationship to the actual meaning of the word, and third, that "

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-65639714581512372022012-01-03T07:56:00.007-05:002012-01-03T09:15:13.497-05:00

Natural childbirth advocates often appear to be nothing more than a bunch of parrots. One of them makes up something and the rest of them mindlessly repeat it.Consider the issue of maternal mortality. Fittingly, Ina May Gaskin, the biggest fraud in the world of NCB advocacy, misconstrued the most basic information (possibly deliberately) and fashioned the biggest lie. And once she made it up, Ina

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-822340698343513062012-01-02T08:27:00.002-05:002012-01-02T08:54:00.243-05:00

Sadly, 2011 ended with an appalling 5th confirmed homebirth death in North Carolina. The fourth homebirth death had actually occurred several days later. The death was, as is typically the case with homebirth deaths, needless, senseless, utterly predictable, and totally preventable.The mother is a doula and had a waterbirth. The baby was a breech with a trapped head. The mother transferred to the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-78241576716792281442011-12-30T08:31:00.004-05:002011-12-30T08:31:00.091-05:00

On Wednesday I reviewed the homebirth deaths that appeared on this blog in the past year. Today, we'll take a look at the state, national and international homebirth statistics I wrote about in 2011 as well as scientific papers that looked at the safety of homebirth.1. Western Australia: 20 fold increase in hypoxic deaths at homebirthFrom The 13th Report of the Perinatal and Infant Mortality

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-23806555995584679142011-12-28T11:00:00.004-05:002011-12-29T00:37:45.976-05:00

As the year 2011 draws to an end, I'd like to review the year in homebirth. In this post, I review the homebirth deaths that I wrote about in the past year. In future posts, I'll address the state and national statistics released this year as well as the homebirth studies that were published in 2011.First, the homebirth deaths:1. Attempted VBA3CInitially reported on a message board: A girl who I

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-85560042592397357102011-12-27T12:26:00.008-05:002011-12-27T14:04:41.944-05:00

You have to give homebirth advocates credit for intellectual honesty. It doesn't matter to them whether babies live or die and they don't care who knows it. Apparently, babies who die are just collateral damage in the fight for every woman to put her birth experience ahead of her baby's very life.How else to explain the grotesque nomination of Australian midwife Lisa Barrett as a "National Birth

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-61218564823781461442011-12-26T11:09:00.006-05:002011-12-26T12:08:19.015-05:00

Why are these women smiling?Shouldn't self-proclaimed "midwives" Mary Barhite and Jacqueline Proffit look even a tiny bit remorseful or at least sad in the wake of presiding over yet another homebirth death in the state of North Carolina?Maybe they are smiling because they know it doesn't matter how many babies die at the hands of self-proclaimed homebirth midwives. Other homebirth midwives and

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-3561017522257128972011-12-23T07:00:00.004-05:002011-12-23T07:00:01.651-05:00

In a post on Science and Sensibility, Henci Goer whines that no one is listening to childbirth educators, including herself:I taught Lamaze classes independently from 1980 into the 1990s, yet ... I quit because I could no longer stand watching my students lie down on the railroad track despite all I could do to tell them there was a train coming... More importantly, what more could—no,

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-53989157976547041272011-12-22T07:55:00.004-05:002011-12-22T09:18:09.726-05:00

The internet is a tremendous source of health information. Unfortunately, it is also a tremendous source of misinformation. How can a lay person tell the difference?I've designed the following scoring system to distinguish between factual information about childbirth, and the pseudoscience and made up mumbo-jumbo that passes for "knowledge" among natural childbirth and homebirth advocates.If a

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-16094589274153380962011-12-21T08:01:00.002-05:002011-12-21T09:09:34.884-05:00

Lay optometrists and their advocates are planning rallies at Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices around the country today. They are protesting what they believe to be the coercive tactics of the DMV in mandating vision correction for drivers with less than perfect vision. Simply put, anyone applying for a license must submit to a vision test, and anyone who has been diagnosed with

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-388947927599171872011-12-20T08:36:00.003-05:002011-12-20T09:04:27.568-05:00

The Onion, a satirical newspaper, offers its take on homebirth midwives. Everything from the title, Upon Reflection, I May Have Exaggerated My Skills In Midwifery is spot on: Okay, Helen, you're doing great. Just remember to breathe. In... out. In... out. Fantastic. Just listen to the ocean-waves CD and try to relax. I think I can see the baby. Yeah, you're crowning, and it looks—oh, holy Christ!

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-9114972900776495932011-12-19T08:14:00.008-05:002011-12-19T19:46:55.563-05:00

The Birthplace Study, published just 3 weeks ago, is the largest, most comprehensive study of homebirth ever done. The authors summarized their findings as follows:... [T]here was a significant excess of the primary outcome in births planned at home compared with those planned in obstetric units in the restricted group of women without complicating conditions at the start of care in labour. In

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-22477895749150147102011-12-16T08:46:00.006-05:002011-12-16T09:24:00.401-05:00

In 2003 the US standard birth certificate form was revised to include place of birth and attendant at birth. That makes it possible to compare neonatal death rates at home vs. in the hospital. The first data set (2003-2004) showed that homebirth had triple the rate of neonatal mortality as comparable risk hospital birth. The most recent data set shows was recently released by CDC Wonder and the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-82967333120982742252011-12-15T07:54:00.004-05:002011-12-19T07:54:32.253-05:00

Imagine a bicycle helmet designer who never considered issue of safety. He gives a great deal of thought to style, takes the issue of comfort into account and consider how best to market bicycle helmets, but simply assumes that protecting the cyclist's head is irrelevant because cycling is inherently safe. That would be both foolish and bizarre, because in contrast to the designer's belief that

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-11173641753552387262011-12-14T07:50:00.009-05:002011-12-19T07:50:39.273-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about Melissa Cheyney's disquisition on the anthropology of birth. Cheyney does provide insight into the "meaning making" of natural childbirth and homebirth advocates, but she does so from a position of complete credulousness. Since she (herself a homebirth midwife as well as an anthropologist) is part of the subculture she is investigating, she does not question the meanings,

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-59412427488329397912011-12-13T09:02:00.006-05:002011-12-19T07:46:08.455-05:00

First I have to catch my breath from laughing so hard. I try not to spend large amounts of time wading through complete bullshit, but as a service to my readers, I bought and read Melissa Cheyney's latest attempt at academic relevance. I ought to try it more often; it's really funny.And I did learn something important. Anyone who believes the oft repeated claims that homebirth midwifery is about

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-91011004613519048092011-12-12T20:01:00.008-05:002011-12-13T07:38:23.955-05:00

Evelyn Muhlhan, CNM was suspended by the Maryland Board of Nursing on October 7. According to the story in the Catonsville Patch:The Maryland Board of Nursing has suspended the license of Catonsville-based midwife Evelyn D. Muhlhan, citing multiple complaints in recent years alleging she performed home births without a physician backup or an approved medical plan.It seems that Muhlhan was too

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-642820424888367182011-12-09T07:45:00.007-05:002011-12-09T09:37:42.667-05:00

As homebirth advocates have been forced to reconcile themselves to what everyone else has known all along --- homebirth increases the risk of perinatal and neonatal death --- they've been experimenting with rhetorical strategies to diminish the significance of these deaths.On Wednesday I wrote about Henci Goer's effort to make homebirth deaths more palatable by comparing homebirth to

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-1898747313732983162011-12-08T07:33:00.008-05:002011-12-08T07:40:10.632-05:00

I never cease to be amazed at the pervasive contempt in which professional homebirth advocates hold their own followers.Contempt for the intelligence of their followers: they are confident that followers can be easily tricked with long lists of citations; Contempt for their unfamiliarity with forms of scientific literature: they are confident that their followers will believe something is a

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-44460279912478746242011-12-07T07:18:00.001-05:002011-12-07T07:51:53.897-05:00

Henci Goer has finally moved the homebirth debate where it ought to be (Is Home Birth a Reasonable Option). It's not about whether homebirth is as safe as hospital birth; even she acknowledges that hospital birth is safer. The issue is whether homebirth is safe enough.That, as Goer recognizes is a value judgment. It is up to the individual woman to decided if it is worth it to her to expose her

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-59674903049295882802011-12-06T07:32:00.004-05:002011-12-06T07:48:56.998-05:00

You can't make this stuff up.Melissa Cheyney has seen the light. Voluntary licensure of homebirth midwives has been recognized for the self-serving ploy that it is, so now Cheyney is in favor of mandatory licensing.Yes, she is; she said so in this article:Melissa Cheyney, a licensed midwife and chair of the Oregon Board of Direct Entry Midwifery, argues that mandatory licensure is not a matter of

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-6377751171893714942011-12-05T07:02:00.005-05:002011-12-05T08:33:54.425-05:00

She argued with me in another forum about the safety of homebirth: I truly recommend the book, "Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must be Fixed to put Women and Babies First" by Dr. Marsden Wagner. He is a Doctor with extensive experience and would enlighten many a doctors on the subject and safety of Homebirth...Lets start there Doctors. Lets actually enable a women to birth rather

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-89752596987026670542011-12-02T06:54:00.004-05:002011-12-02T11:09:50.249-05:00

Is there anyone left out there who thinks MANA isn't hiding its death rates?If so, it's not for lack of bone-headed moves on MANA's part. While vigorously denying they are hiding the number of deaths out of the 24,000 planned homebirths in their database, MANA has made it clear that that is precisely what they are doing.The obvious thing to do, if they are hiding their death rates and have

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-80167189904198630482011-12-01T09:17:00.005-05:002011-12-01T11:41:48.186-05:00

A little more than a year ago I wrote a piece entitled Attachment parenting causes autism. The purpose was to demonstrate the faulty reasoning skills of vaccine rejectionists and explain how the same reasons offered to "prove" that vaccines cause autism could also prove that attachment parenting causes autism.The piece has been extremely popular and a lot of people understood the point, but I've

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-8883182137563972252011-11-30T07:34:00.006-05:002011-11-30T08:53:40.771-05:00

Stung by my piece MANA on Time.com What Ricki Lake Doesn't Tell You About Homebirth, MANA has responded.The response is the typical disingenuous attempt of MANA executives to justify withholding their death rates ... with a twist.The latest tactic? Changing their Handbook for Researchers just this month removing specific requirements and implying that they never existed at all.The executives at

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-76031527171474911382011-11-29T07:40:00.008-05:002011-11-29T20:43:38.354-05:00

Advocates of seatbelt free driving are hailing the results of the largest study ever done of driving without a seatbelt.Investigators compared 16,000 women who drove without a seatbelt to the grocery store to 16,000 women who were wearing a seatbelt on the drive to the grocery store and found that the number of deaths was very similar. In fact, for experienced drivers driving to the grocery store

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-23743486701544045992011-11-25T15:48:00.006-05:002011-11-25T16:56:01.565-05:00

It is interesting to see how different media outlets and different stakeholders are trying to spin the results of the Birthplace Study. Is the glass half full or half empty? Did the study show that homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death and brain damage or did it show that homebirth is safe for rigorously screened women who have had uncomplicated births in the past?I reviewed the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-87269841071399721132011-11-25T08:50:00.009-05:002011-11-25T10:33:02.886-05:00

The largest, most comprehensive study ever done of homebirth has released its results and there's nothing left to argue about: homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death.The Birthplace Study, a large multi-year study, was designed to address the safety of place of birth by controlling for the many factors that had not been handled properly in other studies. The study looked at intended place

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-86285480530645392932011-11-23T09:06:00.005-05:002011-11-23T10:18:21.706-05:00

How do homebirth midwives handle mistakes? They bury them, of course, and a recent study from New Zealand is yet another case in point.From the title,Planned Place of Birth in New Zealand: Does it Affect Mode of Birth and Intervention Rates Among Low-Risk Women?, to the conclusion, the authors refuse to address the increased neonatal death rate. In fact, the authors go so far as to deliberately

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-27984681239989636672011-11-22T07:48:00.004-05:002011-11-22T09:27:55.357-05:00

Finally, a natural childbirth advocate willing to say what she desperately needs to believe really means. In a Facebook thread about women who have had C-sections, "Joni" pulls no punches:Yes, they have failed at birth. They succeeded at making a baby and hopefully of caring for it, but they did fail the birth. And birth is so important for baby too. You can be scarred for life by it. There are

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-21598092828372217972011-11-21T07:46:00.005-05:002011-11-21T09:19:37.465-05:00

If there's one thing that all natural childbirth advocates agree upon, it is that natural childbirth requires preparation and education. Such education includes classes, books and websites. No natural childbirth advocate would ever propose doing what women have done for most of human existence, nothing. Here's what I want to know: If natural childbirth is so natural, why must it be taught?The

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-73522580323327482592011-11-18T07:43:00.006-05:002011-11-18T09:26:49.229-05:00

You knew it was coming. When Sarah Kerr was asked why she risked and lost the life of one of her children at a homebirth, she responded by insisting that she had "researched" the issue, and made her decision accordingly.Kerr, like most homebirth advocates, was supremely confident about one thing. She was sure that she was more educated than the rest of us. She had done extensive "research" on the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-1033066809019409412011-11-17T07:13:00.007-05:002011-11-17T08:34:49.178-05:00

Proponents of delayed cord clamping are really, really sure that it is better for babies, and they're willing to look at ever more trivial outcomes to support their belief. Consider the paper published on Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, a major study of delayed cord clamping. Four hundred full term infants born after a low risk pregnancy were randomized to early or delayed cord clamping

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-6009154953222926912011-11-16T07:30:00.008-05:002011-12-04T13:09:37.384-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about the callous and clumsy attempt of national media spokesperson for the Australian College of Midwives, Hannah Dahlen, to change the subject from the fact that homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death to ... well to anything else.In Home births: it's time to broaden the focus of the debate, Dahlen makes the bizarre and morally indefensible claim that preventable

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-88764376637970455502011-11-15T07:28:00.006-05:002011-11-15T09:22:05.302-05:00

The ever growing list of homebirth deaths has become so long that even Australian midwives have recognized that it is foolish to claim that homebirth is safe. The new tack? Proclaim that "mortality is in fact a very limited view of safety."That's what Hannah Dahlen, national media spokesperson for the Australian College of Midwives, has to say in a piece in the Australian press that is a

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-89541977949908941362011-11-14T08:10:00.003-05:002011-11-14T08:54:22.352-05:00

No wonder Melissa Cheyney refuses to release the death rate of Oregon homebirths.In August, I wrote:The minutes of the August 5, 2010 Board meeting reports that the state of Oregon asked for the ability to retrieve information on Oregon midwives from the database:"Cheyney stated that the MANA board's official policy is to give state-level accounts to professional organizations as a tool to

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-81005739184897834942011-11-11T09:04:00.006-05:002011-11-11T10:18:49.111-05:00

Two weeks ago I reported on 15 deaths at two hospitals in the United Kingdon (Promoting normal birth is killing babies and mothers). The 15 tragedies were united by the fact that midwives were so busy promoting "normal" birth that they failed to recognize complications or refused to refer patients to specialists in the face of complications.The mounting death toll of midwife attended preventable

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-19319281010538670082011-11-10T08:31:00.003-05:002011-11-10T08:56:31.768-05:00

The CDC has just released its annual report on birth statistics, Births: Final Data for 2009. Once again, the C-section rate has risen:In 2009, the total cesarean delivery rate reached a record high of 32.9 percent of all births, a 2 percent increase from 32.3 percent in 2008. This is the 13th consecutive year in which the cesarean delivery rate has risen ... There are a number of reasons for the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-34450040085644375602011-11-09T07:52:00.004-05:002011-11-10T08:44:09.347-05:00

Geoffrey Fieger, famous for representing Dr. Jack Kervorkian, is now notable for a new reason. He just won one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in history in an obstetric case. The claim? Failure to perform a C-section, of course.A Detroit-area newspaper reported:In what appears to be the largest medical malpractice lawsuit verdict ever awarded in Michigan, a Macomb Township family has

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-8515670381531598372011-11-08T07:25:00.001-05:002011-11-08T08:10:12.659-05:00

They say that the best defense is a good offense, and perhaps that's what Kim Mosny, CPM had in mind when she publicly posted the story of a perinatal loss on her Facebook page. Mosny has appeared across the internet proclaiming the safety of homebirth. Perhaps she fears that her association with a tragedy might raise doubts about her claims.On October 8, 2011..., [the baby] died inutero (while

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-79674682632137788052011-11-07T08:50:00.002-05:002011-11-07T09:03:45.222-05:00

Isn't every patient entitled to give informed consent for medical care, with the provider explaining risks and benefits of each available option? Oregon homebirth midwives don't think so.New state regulations enacted earlier this year mandated informed consent:Beginning on June 1, 2011, each LDM [licensed direct entry midwife] must provide risk information as published on the agency’s website

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-12305029960480473732011-11-07T08:44:00.002-05:002011-11-07T08:48:20.455-05:00

Tomorrow, Ricki Lake is releasing More Business of Being Born, a direct to DVD sequel to her first movie.My piece on Time.com details What Ricki Lake Doesn’t Tell You About Homebirth.

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-91212433705418831882011-11-04T08:48:00.004-04:002011-11-04T09:37:50.268-04:00

Organizers of the Home Birth Consensus Summit are trumpeting the nine statements of common ground that emerged from the meeting. According to the press release:Although many of the participants represented stakeholders who have long been on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to the practice of delivering at home or in a freestanding birth center, the group was able to reach agreement on

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-60461958648858693432011-11-03T07:55:00.007-04:002011-11-03T09:50:05.210-04:00

Last week I wrote that the relentless effort by UK midwives in promoting normal birth is killing babies and mothers. At Furness General Hospital in Cumbria 6 babies and 2 mothers have died preventable deaths, including Joshua Titcombe: Hoa Titcombe, 34, gave birth to Joshua at the end of a normal delivery. But nine days later the baby bled to death after suffering a lung infection which could

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-15287261326461259652011-11-01T14:53:00.004-04:002011-11-01T20:53:28.686-04:00

It would be laughable if it were not so utterly pathetic.I'm referring to the latest nonsensical mantra circulating in among homebirth advocates: "Homebirth shows woman at her most powerful."No doubt that comes as an utter shock to the women of Afghanistan and other 3rd world countries who are dying in droves because they have no alternative to homebirths.No doubt that would have come as an utter

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-91094385024491113172011-10-31T07:40:00.012-04:002011-11-09T09:20:06.221-05:00

It's that time of year again, late October, when Colorado homebirth midwives release their death statistics as mandated by Colorado law. Before I disclose this year's death rate, let's review to put it in perspective.Two years ago, I wrote about the horrifying death toll of homebirth in Colorado: ... [T]he perinatal death rate of LICENSED homebirth midwives in Colorado, caring for low risk

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-89284387187437445532011-10-28T08:17:00.003-04:002011-10-28T09:14:11.389-04:00

For years, the Royal College of Midwives in the UK has been on a relentless campaign to promote "normal birth." We are now seeing the results, and they are nothing short of horrific.Last month the focus was on Furness General Hospital in Cumbria where 6 babies and 2 mothers have died preventable deaths, including:* Hoa Titcombe, 34, gave birth to Joshua at the end of a normal delivery. But nine

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-12617332971088240522011-10-27T08:39:00.003-04:002011-10-27T09:23:39.704-04:00

Despite counseling about the risk of a fatal outcome, a mother elects to attempt a VBA3C at home, her uterus ruptures and her baby dies. A woman with a breech baby is advised that birth at home carries higher than average risk. The woman ignores the medical advice, the baby's head is trapped during birth and the baby dies. A women is told that her twins are in an unfavorable position for

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-15371357659457830282011-10-26T07:33:00.003-04:002011-10-26T09:05:56.296-04:00

I admit it; I don't understand it.I understand if you let your baby die by choosing homebirth because you gullibly accepted the "trust birth" nonsense and didn't believe that it could happen. And I understand if you let your baby die by choosing homebirth because you had faith that your God would not let it happen, or if He did it would be for a good reason.But I don't understand how you can let

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-52114706717157915752011-10-25T07:57:00.005-04:002011-10-25T10:01:43.842-04:00

You could have seen this coming.In a flourish of righteous zeal, the March of Dimes went on record strongly opposing early elective delivery before 39 weeks gestation. They railed against the increase in NICU admissions; they railed against the increase in C-sections; and they railed against the increase in costs. What they inexplicably failed to take into account was the inevitable increase in

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-20084457793213302662011-10-24T07:27:00.003-04:002011-10-24T09:06:45.036-04:00

A new Dutch study of homebirth appears in the forthcoming issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Planned Home Compared With Planned Hospital Births in The Netherlands by van der Kooy et al. is large, comprehensive and raises troubling questions about the safety of homebirth.The large amount of data is analyzed in a bewildering number of ways, but the bottom line is that homebirth is safe

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-32324028105903272642011-10-22T08:18:00.004-04:002011-10-23T09:01:28.919-04:00

Lisa Barrett has presided over 5 newborn deaths in the past 4 years and now she is being persecuted just because of a few dead babies:They have raided my house so I no longer have a computer or a telephone, my husband can’t carry on his business as they took his computer and the children can’t do their school projects as they took their computer too. They have the power to prevent a grieving

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-23187447569578263472011-10-21T11:11:00.004-04:002011-10-21T11:16:37.459-04:00

The Home Birth Consensus Summit is underway. There are quite a few people tweeting. I've put a a twitter gadget in the sidebar so we can follow the tweets. The tag #hbcs is being used to aggregate the tweets into one stream.You can add your comments to the Twitter stream. Just include #hbcs somewhere in the tweet.

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-14505464313391911082011-10-20T08:26:00.003-04:002011-10-20T08:48:14.891-04:00

The theory of the "big lie" is that if you say it loud enough and long enough, people will believe it regardless of how ridiculous it is. Such is the case with Dr. Michel Odent's claim that childbirth pain is necessary for mother-infant bonding. It is ridiculous, there is no evidence for it, which is not surprising since he made it up.Odent went public with his fabrication in July 2006:Women who

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-75588447193937463442011-10-19T10:15:00.004-04:002011-10-31T08:51:56.923-04:00

I have received information that Lisa Barrett presided over a 5th homebirth death. The baby boy was born on May 31, 2009 and died due to brain damage on June 2, 2009. This was the mother's second homebirth with Lisa Barrett. According to the mother:Sunday at about 8:40 pm our son Ian was born at home. He didn't breathe at birth despite our midwives' best efforts. We went to hospital with him

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-41826355910145375232011-10-18T07:41:00.004-04:002011-10-18T09:49:05.880-04:00

Lisa Barrett's ears must be burning. They're talking about her in the Australian Parliament:South Australian Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel recently completed an inquiry into the deaths of two babies in separate incidents in 2007 and 2009.Former midwife Lisa Barrett attended both births.South Australian Health Minister John Hill told state parliament on Tuesday he had been advised that Ms Barrett

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-86083594777615719342011-10-17T07:17:00.002-04:002011-10-17T08:46:56.698-04:00

Congratulations on your decision to embark on a career in quackery! It's perfect for you! No education required, no investment required, no intelligence required. All you need is the cunning to realize that there is a boatload of money to be made by promoting pseudoscience to gullible lay people.There are only three things you need to do to launch your career. Get a free website, fill it with

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-15790663840082040002011-10-14T07:40:00.003-04:002011-10-14T08:32:36.349-04:00

Earlier this week I wrote about how Navelgazing Midwife has come to accept some basic realities about pregnancy and childbirth that many homebirth midwives reject. It has been a long time coming.I first wrote about Barb Herrera, Navelgazing Midwife, almost exactly 4 years ago when she transferred a patient to the hospital so someone more experienced could suture a tear. She acknowledged that she

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-52632672634839183572011-10-13T08:01:00.002-04:002011-10-13T08:04:26.527-04:00

Since the subtext of the natural childbirth and attachment parenting movements is the notion of the good mother, it's worth asking what makes a good mother. My whole approach to writing about childbirth and mothering choices is based my rejection of currently popular beliefs about good mothering. Simply put, I believe that good mothering is about choosing mothering and not about mothering

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-65235974877136440552011-10-13T07:19:00.002-04:002011-10-13T09:22:33.503-04:00

Time.com has inaugurated a new section called Ideas, and I contributed a piece:Myths of Natural Childbirth

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-47546596248343292622011-10-12T08:29:00.002-04:002011-10-12T09:13:33.772-04:00

Barb Herrera, Navelgazing Midwife, has written a series of posts (starting here) on choosing a competent homebirth midwife. In reading the posts, I am struck by how much of what Barb writes comports with what I have written over the years.I've written that homebirth midwives claiming to be "experts in normal birth" is worse than useless. It's like a meteorologist claiming to be an expert in good

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-53267727034340005482011-10-10T15:42:00.004-04:002011-10-10T16:19:58.365-04:00

There is something perverse and dysfunctional about a philosophy that leads a new mother to react with disappointment to the serendipitous rescue of her baby from certain death....I dont feel like I gave birth, I feel like he was taken from me...stolen...I dont feel like a mom yet and when Im not holding him I feel like I should still be pregnant.According to her post on Mothering.com, that's how

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-35948204750648593252011-10-10T09:39:00.004-04:002011-10-14T11:17:00.945-04:00

I thought Lisa Barrett was demonstrating contempt when she publicly tweeted during the recently completed Coroner's Inquest convened to examine her role in two homebirth deaths but that pales in comparison to this.According to a source, Barrett spent Friday evening at a twin homebirth that resulted in one healthy baby and a second on life support and declared brain dead.I have asked Barrett to

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-73527884955381564762011-10-06T21:44:00.004-04:002011-10-06T23:33:06.861-04:00

I've been writing for years that homebirth is viewed by a homebirth advocate as a piece of performance art with herself as the star. Everyone, midwives, her partner, even the baby are nothing more than bit players in "her" birth. That's certainly what Marni Kotak thinks.Eat your heart out Feminist Breeder. Sure you broadcast your homebirth to the world, and you got a corporate sponsor. Nancy

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-56696231386554203172011-10-05T16:12:00.005-04:002011-10-05T19:19:21.236-04:00

Far be it from me to complain about the participation of trolls in the comment sections of this blog. Trolls serve a very valuable function here. They drive conversation, illustrate various deficiencies in the thinking of NCB and homebirth advocates, and provide endless entertainment.Every science based website with a comment section has trolls, and they share several important characteristics.1.

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-48615319305951567132011-10-05T08:32:00.005-04:002011-10-05T10:21:35.405-04:00

The homebirth statistics keep on coming and they keep demonstrating the same thing: homebirth increases the risk of death.I've written extensively about the appalling rate of perinatal death at the hands of licensed midwives in Colorado, and, of course, the overall US statistics show that homebirth with a direct entry midwife triples the neonatal death rate. The latest data comes from Missouri

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-89871905962918906232011-10-04T08:53:00.008-04:002011-10-04T15:30:49.692-04:00

The state of South Australia, which includes the city of Adelaide, has published it's perinatal mortality rates. The data shows that planned homebirth has a perinatal mortality rate more than 17X higher than comparable risk hospital birth.The report, Pregnancy Outcome in South Australia 2009, is a dry recitation of birth statistics without editorial comment. The statistics are analyzed in every

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-34426498861132171872011-10-03T07:32:00.004-04:002011-10-03T09:25:08.945-04:00

The utter contempt with which homebirth midwives greet attempts to hold them accountable for homebirth deaths and disasters is truly amazing. Consider Melissa Cheyney and company enshrining into Oregon law the ability to practice homebirth midwifery without regulation of any kind including a license, Amy Medwin in North Carolina soliciting funds from her midwifery colleagues to pay the fines

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-53242619988457096332011-09-30T09:46:00.003-04:002011-09-30T10:44:31.935-04:00

Homebirth midwives abhor being held accountable for letting babies die preventable deaths. When they've exhausted their typical gambits: the "baby would have died anyway" gambit, the "some babies just die" gambit, and the "mother is responsible for the baby's death" gambit, they move on to what they consider their trump card.That would be the "ignore the dead babies, or other babies will die"

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-84803737978599523852011-09-27T16:41:00.002-04:002011-09-28T16:33:59.929-04:00

Remember the Flintstones?Flintstones, meet the FlintstonesThey're the modern stone age familyFrom the town of BedrockThey're a page right out of historyLet's ride with the family down the streetBy the courtesy of Fred's two feet ...The conceit of the Flintstones animated series is that prehistoric life faithfully emulated modern life except machines used rocks, animals and people power in place

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-5701385521901160532011-09-27T09:24:00.002-04:002011-09-27T09:29:01.438-04:00

Ten:One to teach the course "Empower yourself by changing your own light bulb."One to whisper affirmations encouraging the light bulb to be in the correct position.One to photograph the event.One to tweet the event live.One to fill the kiddie pool. (Note: professional electricians claim that standing in water while changing a light bulb is dangerous, but they just say that to ruin your light bulb

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-4028705466245365112011-09-26T11:23:00.004-04:002011-09-26T12:14:00.489-04:00

I read this story, and all I could think of was the Disney Superbowl commercials where the announcer asks the winning quarterback what he's going to do next, and the quarterback says he's going to Disney World.Announcer: Hey, Mrs. Bernstein, your baby was just left profoundly brain injured by your decision to have a homebirth. What are you going to do next?Mrs. Berstein: I'm going to refuse to

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-57303203076254997662011-09-22T16:34:00.006-04:002011-10-03T09:41:21.030-04:00

You're thinking about homebirth and you are interviewing the midwife. Or perhaps you've already decide on a homebirth, but you have developed a complication and you need to decided whether to deliver in a hospital instead. Maybe you've decided on a homebirth, but you haven't decided whether to have the tests routinely included in MD supervised prenatal care.You've asked the midwife for her

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-20141957670247867982011-09-21T08:48:00.003-04:002011-09-21T09:04:33.897-04:00

The homebirth midwife trusted birth and the baby suffered permanent brain damage. It appears, however, that this homebirth midwife carried insurance. Although it does not change the fact that their child is disabled, it allowed the parents to sue and obtain a large settlement that will be used to care for their son.According to the American Association for Justice website:Ara Flores delivered her

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-56670349524957275812011-09-20T08:19:00.005-04:002011-09-20T16:16:34.161-04:00

Midwives have a large and ever growing problem with scientific research. The stark reality is that scientific research demonstrates that most of what is exclusive to midwifery is unsupported by scientific evidence and much of it (including all of homebirth midwifery) is irrational.Hence, there is a large and ever growing divided between midwifery research and scientific research. Scientific

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-82145687316408791822011-09-19T08:11:00.005-04:002011-09-19T09:17:13.732-04:00

One of the most bizarre aspects of homebirth advocacy is the insistence that "babies die." Why do homebirth advocates blithely offer this cold blooded claim, at odds with everything they profess to believe about the trustworthiness of birth, in the wake of every homebirth death?They are desperate to resolve the cognitive dissonance between what they believe about birth ("trust birth") and the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-38103780482798971372011-09-18T10:46:00.003-04:002011-09-18T11:37:54.177-04:00

The whole "trust birth" thing continues to work out very poorly for homebirth midwives, the mothers they serve, and most of all the babies who die preventable deaths because of their lack of education and training.At this point, it appears that homebirth death stories are becoming so common that mothers report on them without anger and even without surprise. Consider the homebirth death that

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-58475329413716567422011-09-16T07:26:00.003-04:002011-09-16T08:51:42.174-04:00

Melissa Cheyney has been under intense pressure since the debacle of publishing an op-ed in the Register-Guard touting Oregon's strict licensing standards while failing to mention that no license is required (Melissa Cheyney, have you no shame). She came across as dishonest and duplicitous. She had to do something.According to OregonLive:For years, Melissa Cheyney, a licensed midwife and Oregon

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-43354168472773508252011-09-15T10:36:00.006-04:002011-09-15T10:43:19.719-04:00

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-81125743703659550122011-09-14T15:37:00.009-04:002011-10-06T21:49:43.884-04:00

You can't make this stuff up.I've written many times about the narcissism of homebirth advocates. There are people like Janet Fraser and Annie Bourgault who probably meet the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, given that they let their babies die at homebirths and feel not one whit of remorse.Then there are the garden variety narcissists like Gina Crosley-Corcoran, the

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-40725390868546720602011-09-14T07:36:00.005-04:002011-09-14T10:05:41.602-04:00

Hi, I'm Jen Jones, LP, MA, PsD, a lay nuclear physicist.I know what you're thinking: a real nuclear physicist needs a PhD (instead of a PsD), must have spent years at a super expensive school like MIT and has to work in a place like Los Alamos in New Mexico where they built the atomic bomb. That's what most nuclear physicists want you to think. The truth is that you can be a lay nuclear physicist

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5990432096148809537.post-4186973855207653582011-09-13T07:50:00.002-04:002011-09-13T09:04:19.132-04:00

Promoting normal birth is always and only about promoting midwives.When I first read the phrase "promoting normal birth" I was confused. Why would a healthcare professional be promoting any set of procedures or any particular approach to a health issue? I thought it was the job of health professionals to promote safety.You won't find any real medical professional who insists that he or she "

Amy Tuteur, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08496583576036722794noreply@blogger.com0