Dr. Amy, the Comedian

According to Dr. Amy, a woman who hasn't even practiced as a doctor for almost twenty years and who has an expired medical license-  homebirth advocates, "vaccine rejectionists", and childbirth educators, are "gullible". She posted this image on her website.. ----->

She went on to say this:

Those who think they can "educate" themselves on the internet are gullible; don't actually read the books and websites, merely skim the titles; if they read the books and websites, they don't make an effort to understand what is written; and, of course, they have no idea about even the most basic elements of logical thought.

This gave me quite the chuckle. Apparently, Dr. Amy has forgotten that she sells medical advice over the internet....

I wonder what that says about the people who buy her medical advice online...

Not only are they educating themselves, but they are paying for that unique information that apparently, cannot be discovered by using google. Didn't you know, if you do a quick internet search, you are nothing but an ignorant fool? Instead, you can find out if you are pregnant by paying the low price of only 4.95! Then you can truly claim you are educated!

If I had to guess, I would say that the people who pay Amy for medical advice, fall under the gullible category, if we are going by her criteria. But then we don't want to forget about the people who trust someone who ridicules others for being gullible, all while selling medical advice over the internet..

Well, this is coming from the same woman that claims birth isn't powerful and mocks women who say that birth made them feel empowered.. in fact, she is so confused by this simple concept, that she actually thinks it means that a woman is claiming birth makes her as powerful as a president or a king or a saudi prince....

I wonder what she has in store for us next!

Breastfeeding, Boobs, and Silly Facebook Rules

Dearest Facebook,

I'm really not trying to be one of those people who nitpick and complain about every, little, thing but can we talk about your double standards for a minute?

What I'm trying to figure out, is why you find an image of a mother nursing her children, obscene? Is our culture THAT uptight that we get offended when see a flash of a woman's breast with a baby attached to it, but happily accept a flash of a woman's breast, as long as it's in a sexual manner?

Let's look at some images that are enough to get a user completely banned from facebook...

And now let's look at some images where no one bats an eye...

So, what's the deal facebook? We aren't just trying to be whiny, difficult mothers. We only want what is right and what is fair. Do you have a good answer for us? Why is something that is so natural and so beautiful, unacceptable to you?

I'd like to end this post to you with a message, written by Skeptical Mother fan, Sharyn Alwine Thomas..

No one is suggesting that Facebook eliminate or change the anti-obscenity policy designed to protect and preserve the innocence and safety of children while online. What we are suggesting is a measure of reasonableness... 
Facebook says their policy exists to protect children. Breastfeeding mothers ask only to do the same: Protect children and encourage other mothers to protect their children. To this end, we ask for the ability to portray breastfeeding in an honest, open way as being a normal function of human life...
We know that social media sites can act as a means to effect social change for the better. We've seen it change cities, countries, regions and the world. We ask you to reconsider your image policy in order to foster in the Next Big Social Change: The encouragement and support of proper infant nutrition for women around the world.
We, mothers and supporters of mothers, believe Facebook is capable of heralding that change.

Hypocrisy

I am really growing weary of all the hypocrisy I am seeing. And, I am going to be honest, that hypocrisy is mostly coming from the people who are against homebirth and are "fed up" with natural childbirth. Hypocrisy such as being pro elective c-section but adamantly anti- homebirth. If you cannot understand the hypocrisy in that, you need to reevaluate your beliefs. Let me explain.
Elective c-section without medical reason has a neonatal death rate of 1.77/1000.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-536X.2006.00102.x/abstract

When the people who are against homebirth analyzed the CDC data on homebirth, they came up with a neonatal death rate of 1.15/1000. (found here)

Don't forget the CDC data on homebirth actually includes high risk women and women attended by "other" midwife- which could mean a doula or a friend who hopes to be a midwife someday.
So, just based on this alone ( let's forget about the numerous benefits to baby and mother at a homebirth for a minute, especially when compared with c-section ), more babies live at homebirth than babies who are born by elective c-section, with no medical reason indicated. Here is my question- do you think it is hypocritical to support the one where more babies die, and at the same time, relentlessly go after the one where more babies live? Interesting question to ponder.

Then there is the hypocrisy of "blaming loss moms". Oh, am I tired of this line. I am tired of people using this statement to win arguments, to make themselves look sympathetic and to make other people look evil and cruel. If YOU blame mothers who have lost babies, then you are a hypocrite if you get angry  when other people do it, too. Please, please, take a look at yourself and your own actions. Work on yourself first. You think it is wrong to blame loss moms? Okay, then, don't do it yourself...

The majority of these comments ( a few others were about two other loss moms) were about a woman who labored for eight days and her midwives would not take her to the hospital, even when she begged. Taken from here. These are what the commenters, who are against homebirth, had to say about this mother's loss...

                BWF had absolutely no responsibility in this. Again, totally misdirecting blame.

                        
                           The comments below are from two other homebirth loss stories taken from this blog..

         Those who are against homebirth, use the line- "NCB'ers always blame loss moms!" So, they are not happy when their cover has been blown. Guess what? They blame loss moms! Is it okay? No. Leave these mothers alone to grieve in peace. But, as I was kindly informed, numerous times when I asked for this, on this anti-natural birth blog, "they put their story on the interwebz, so we can judge it if we want..". Wow, how thoughtful.. how kind. Maybe, now they will look at themselves and the next time some grieving mother has her story posted on this awful site, people will protect her and defend her. And, for those who like to always claim it's the NCB side who blames, please come back to this post every now and then and have a wake up call.  Read your words, read your friends words, check out the kind of comments YOU like.  Hypocrisy, ladies, it's what you ate for breakfast.

Will the real Dr. Amy please stand up?

If you have ever heard of Amy Tuteur, then you have also probably asked yourself-
Who IS this woman and why is she constantly telling me homebirth is dangerous?
And, why does she feel it is her place to tell me where and how I should birth my child?

Well, if you have wondered this, you are not alone. Many of us have been intrigued by this random woman on the net who spends so much of her time and energy trying to make homebirth and midwives look bad. You would think, if homebirth was truly as dangerous as she claims and midwives were really as awful as she makes them about to be, she would have taken some action by now to actually do something about it.

Writing a blog is.. well.. writing a blog. It certainly won't make homebirth safer and as far as I know, midwives won't become more educated or experienced by anti-homebirth blog posts, either.
So, you may have wondered..What IS the point in what she is doing? You may have even asked yourself.. What in the heck happend to this woman to make her so rabid about homebirth?

Unfortunately, I just do not have an answer for that. I have speculation... Oh, yes, I have speculation, but I surely cannot prove, that besides being completely and utterly bored, this is all based on her ego and desperate need for attention.

What I can do is this.. I can present you, the reader with a little insight into the infamous doctor
and then you, yourself, can make a judgement call on the kind of person she is. You may want to ask yourselves a couple of questions at the end of this post.

1. Does Amy Tuteur use fact or opinion as a source of information?
2. Is Amy Tuteur a good source to look to when searching for scientific evidence?

A couple of years ago, Dr. Amy was a writer on a site called Science Based Medicine.This is a place where skeptics like to go to get to the truth of the matter through science, data and other fact based information. She lasted there for three months and due to some unknown reasons, decided and/or was asked, to leave.

This is what the majority of skeptics had to say about her departure..

We have all heard Amy Tuteur accuse many, many people of lying, twisting the truth, and making false claims based on pure opinion. Now, I am beginning to wonder.. exactly who is the one misrepresenting the truth? I know what I believe but I'll let you be the judge...