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...
Whoot!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! This is so helpful. It makes me realize that I am not just irrational in my dilike of her style and distrust of her point of view.
ReplyDeleteVery good job on this post...amy is way to far extreme on the anti-everything that's NOT hospital...she cruel and demeaning to women around her...she offers no insight or fact to her words. She's a sad woman who attacks everyone who doesn't think exactly like her...shes stuck in a box and is missing out on life.
ReplyDeleteWoot Woot! I actually just came across some of this info myself, for the first time. I love that you shed some light on this issue for everyone.
ReplyDeleteWay to divert attention from the fact that virtually everything you think you "know" about childbirth is factually false.
ReplyDeleteYou think those commentors are my peers?
Excuse me, but my peers are not random people commenting anonymously on blogs. My peers are other obstetricians. What do they have to say about the scientific evidence I present? They generally agree.
And, regardless of what anyone thinks of me, you still lack even the most basic understanding of science and statistics, and repeatedly make claims that are utterly false.
quack quack quack
DeleteFunny, I know several OBs that support a woman's choice to homebirth. I know doctors that think it's great and nurses that support it.
DeleteI know LOTS of the same "peers" think you are absolutely ridiculous.
I know statisticians that disagree with your logic.
You are seriously one of the few people I know that refuses to look at the facts regarding natural childbirth in general. I wouldn't trust an accountant that has been out of the field for well over a decade. Why should someone trust you?
My OB says that she likes home birth. Wouldn't she be one of your peers, Amy?
DeleteThe best thing to do in this situation is to not bring attention to Dr. Tuteur. Ignore her. The more you talk about it, the more people pay attention.
ReplyDeleteWhat scientific evidence?! I think you're kind of missing the point, Amy...
ReplyDeleteDr. Amy is the poster child for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
ReplyDeleteIt has been stated, many times, how pride comes before the fall...
ReplyDeleteWith, as the commenters put it, the "lack of evidence," I wonder how she even got that "MD" attached to her name...or is that fake too?
Just a thought: ANY woman who goes through childbirth KNOWS about it...maybe not everything, maybe not the scientific jargon, & maybe not the best way to handle something...but she knows enough to get the job done. & the basic understanding of science & statistics, for birthing, remains in the "Do Not Need" category. Nice to know, but not needed.
And, Skeptical Mother, you did an EXCELLENT job of illustrating your point without resorting to accusations and belittling. Wish I could say the same about the other person...
Wow, that's really revealing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she'll just keep running her mouth/fingers and eventually work her way out of her profession, losing any slim credibility she may have once had.
I look forward to the day when the natural birthing community (and all mothers-to-be) are rid of the vitriol we've (unfortunately) come to reliably expect from the stomach-wrenching unpleasantness that is Dr. Amy.
The text is too small for me to read. I generally stay away from anything Amy-related. Bad juju on the internet.
ReplyDeleteAmy, if what you were saying were true, if babies
ReplyDeletewere truly needlessly dying at the drop of a hat at home and
safe beyond compare at the hospital, every doctor in this
country would be supporting you.
I think you may have 3 or 4 doctors on your blog that regularly post.
Let me repeat that, THREE or FOUR doctors. That is not
ALL your peers.
The commenters on SBM are NOT natural childbirth advocates!!
They generally have the exact same stance as you on homebirth..
But, they want real evidence, Amy. They want the truth and
you are just not providing that.
YOU are the one that spreads half truth, mistruths and outright
lies. YOU are the one who is constantly projecting onto
others what YOU do.
This is proof. We are not alone. Skeptics think the
exact same thing as all of us and "all of us" actually includes
doctors and scientists.
I have debated you on this myself and even me, a mere
schoolteacher, who really does not know anything about
statistics, proved that you do not have the evidence to
prove homebirth is dangerous.
Who is really lying here, Amy? Who is really misleading the public?
As I said, I know what I think, I'll leave it up to everyone
else to decide.
Am I the only one who's noticed that her name -- Amy Tuteur -- sounds an awful lot like a bad pseudonym for "amateur"? It's like the whole NCB community is being punked.
ReplyDeleteAlso--
ReplyDeleteYes, there are laypersons on SBM. There are even some professionals who have reached incorrect conclusions based on incomplete data. But for the most part, they are professionals in their own fields, intelligent human beings, adults capable of scientific thinking even if they are not scientists themselves. I'm not a scientist, but I use the scientific method in my job every day. This doesn't mean I'm an expert in biology or biochemistry, but it does mean I'm capable of understanding, assimilating, analyzing and assembling data. That's what science IS -- impartial data analysis. The particular field of science is irrelevant -- unless you honestly think that, say, an astrophysicist is incapable of understanding basic statistics in medicine. Considering one of my home-birthing friends is a physics professor with Ph.D.s in both physics and biology I'd have to call you full of crap if you think that a few heavily biased OBs hold more authority than the entirety of the scientific community.
Amusing... I refuse to call her "doctor" since she seems to just be a bitter old woman who cannot or will not educate herself beyond medical school. As we Southern ones like to say, "Bless her heart."
ReplyDeletehahaha, Dr. Amy desperately needs to get laid. I mean, like whoa.
ReplyDeleteI had a VBAC at home Dr. Amy... a 10lb 2oz, 42 week gestation VBAC. Woohoo.
You cant stop this movement. Sorry.
I came across AT after I had had 3 hospital births and had *just* heard about Homebirth. Didn't imagine I'd *ever* have one but wanted to find out more. I read through some of her blog and honestly, it got me more interested in HB than any pro-HB site I read! Her crazy vitriol and lack of calm, evidence-based reasoning made me think there must be something in this HB thing after all.
ReplyDeleteHa. Amy's peers aren't ones to be commenting on a random blog. It's just Amy that has time (and negative energy) to comment on a random blog;-)
ReplyDeleteMuah ha ha ha ha ... thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnytime, Kim :-)
ReplyDeleteMore to come too.....
my question is why would someone whose retired waste their time on sabatoging homebirth.
ReplyDeletewhy would she want to make woman who feel confident in their choice second guess themselves
i often read her post on the unneceserean and i find their my least favorite
I actually agree with a LOT of what Doctor Amy has to say. However I do agree that personal attacks may be a little mean spirited. The way I see it though, is that some people (as with any group really) may be pulled along for the ride even when the context is not suitable for what may actually be a pre-chosen course of action. I believe that Doctor Amy has a wider aim for her blog and her views, and that this aim is to stop the "sheep" so to speak, from following a trend just for the sake of the trend. I think she is just presenting a differing viewpoint, in that the medical world and its opinions should not be completely discarded in light of a lot of new ideas in the parenting world, and in light of the power of the internet to effect many. I consider myself a natural parent and a bit radical in many of my passions, and I do feel upset by a lot of what Doctor Amy writes. BUT feeling upset is not enough to stop me from recognising what she is saying, and from recognising that she is a trained and experienced, and INTELLIGENT, professional. I respect Doctor Amy for the professional that she is. I feel that someone who is educated and comfortable in their birthing and parenting choices will not be put off by what Doctor Amy is saying, because they will have already considered what she is saying. If she is saying things that a woman has not considered, then perhaps she has done this person a service by enlightening them. I realise that this post is against Doctor Amy and is an attempt to undermine her, but I do hope my comment will be published and recognised.
ReplyDeleteHey there, just came across your site through Facebook. Not sure if you're aware of the work of Carl Michal, a physicist in Vancouver, around setting things straight on homebirth? It all started when a guy like him who can do stats in his head started reading a journal while his wife was seeing her midwives... You can check out these links. Good luck and carry on!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nature.com/news/2011/110318/full/news.2011.162.html
and
http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2011/03/21/seeking-clarity-for-the-toughest-decisions-of-all/
I'm stumbling across this years later after doing some research into Tuteur... And I actually had no idea that this had occurred, or that other people shared my opinion that she was coming are her arguments waaaay too aggressively.
ReplyDelete