Now the unassisted birth advocates that have been posting on this board are showing themselves to be completely nutty with their paranoid conspiracy theories!

First of all, it ultimately doesn't matter whether the poster is a doctor or not. It doesn't make what she is saying any less valid. Secondly, since when do you need to verify your credentials to post on a board? I don't think Dr. Tuteur or anyone else on this board needs to prove themselves to you!

Oh, and Dr. Amy,

get a couple of people who have known you from birth, you know, maybe your mom, or your grandma or a neighbor, and include them in that video testifying that you are a doctor, and went to harvard.

Do it today. Now.

I posted a you tube video of myself up on my blog yesterday. It took about five minutes of my time.

Five minutes to prove to the world that Dr. Amy is legit.

Can you do it?

Jenny Hatch

PS You can Probably prove it about as well as Dr. Critten can prove he is just one lone doctor blogging for the status quo in the UK. I'm thinking he is six or seven PR dudes shilling for big pharma. Do you know what that is called?

Pharmaceutical whoring.

Dr. Amy,

I've noticed that you don't have any pictures up on your three blogs. You also have no video, and rarely if ever, talk about your family.

You don't talk like a real woman. I have had contact with hundreds of women in my circle of life. Friends, my eleven sisters and sisters in law, those who took my childbirth class, and fellow Bradley Teachers etc etc.... And you don't express yourself like a real woman.

You are a caricature of a person spewing the party line over and over and over in the various places you post and write and defend to the death the obstetrical model of birth.

You know who I think you are?

I think you are four Public Relations dudes from Eli Lilly set up as a blogger to defend the staus quo on the web.

It is up to you to prove that you are real. Post a video of yourself on You Tube. And while you are at it, let us see your birth certificate and credentials in that video.

The thing about the web is, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but if you are a blogger fraud, you will be found out.

Times up DR. AMY, the onus is on you. Prove that you are real. DO IT NOW, and do not write one more word against home birth until you do.

The Reuters UC Birth article is up. http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL2148514320070522

You are swimming against a flood of evidence based birth practices and I believe it is simply time for you to go away.

Jenny Hatch

dairy_queen:

"Don't you have some housecleaning to do?"

LOLOL. Not only have you demonstrated that the typical homebirth advocate knows very little about childbirth, nothing about science and nothing about statistics, you've also done exactly what homebirth advocates tend to do when their lack of knowledge is exposed for all to see. You've resorted to classic sexist put downs of another woman.

Oh, the irony. The same people who babble about "empowering" birth and prattle about the patriarchial medical system, reflexively resort to sexism when challenged. Hence the comments about housecleaning. Interestingly, all the men who created and promote "natural" childbirth have not delivered any babies recently (some have never delivered babies), but homebirth advocates have no trouble accepting what they say (even if they make it up).

My goal is not to convince you of anything. I deal in facts and you glorify your personal opinion. I do hope that people who have been following this discussion walk away with the salient points:

The existing scientific literature shows that homebirth has an excess of preventable neonatal deaths compared to hospital birth of comparable risk women.

The scientific papers that CLAIM to show that homebirth is as safe as hospital birth are based on deception. They compared homebirth of low risk white women to general neonatal mortality rates including all races, all gestational ages and all complications.

The so called "risks" of medication in childbirth are almost entirely fabricated by "natural" childbirth advocates in an effort to impress themselves with their supposed superiority.

Childbirth is and has always been INHERENTLY dangerous for both mothers and babies. Just as pregnancy has a natural miscarriage rate, childbirth has a NATURAL death rate.

"Natural" childbirth was fabricated by Grantly Dick-Read because he was a racist and sexist and wanted white women to stay home and have more children than their "inferiors".

Women have the right to give birth at home. They also have the right to receive accurate information about the risks in order to make an informed decision.

"One of the most important differences between people who understand science and those who don't is that people who understand science recognize that subjective experience is often wrong and only objective measurement will tell us the truth. People thought that the earth was flat because it seemed flat to them. People thought that the sun revolved around the earth because it seemed to them that it did. They were wrong."

I have two eyes, and know what I see. I know the difference between an alert, with-it baby and a drugged, floppy one. Objective observation is the basis of science, not just mouthing off statistics like you do.

"Similarly, it seems to you that babies of women who have received medication are different. You're wrong (AGAIN)."

AGAIN, I know what I saw, and what I continue to see. Babies medicated at birth ARE different. I wonder what their little livers look like under the microscope?

"First of all, your experience is incredibly limited. How many neonates have you examined? Five? Ten? Fifty? Certainly you have not examined and tested hundreds or thousands of babies, and that is what is necessary to reach conclusions on this topic."

Yes, it is limited, but it doesn't mean it's wrong. How many babies have YOU examined lately? Rumor has it that you're not even a practicing M.D., just another stay-at-home mother with too much time on your hands. So it may very well be that I've actually observed more babies than you lately.

"Second, this has been studied quite extensively, and there is no objective evidence of any differences."

Maybe on whatever planet you're on. Any cursory search on Google yields plenty of evidence to the contrary here on planet Earth.

"How can we take seriously your professions of concern for theoretical, or unproven, or made up "risks" cause by medicated childbirth, when you don't seem to care about the increased risk of preventable DEATH at homebirth?

I don't care if you take them seriously or not, frankly. The whole spiel about "dangerous birth" is yours to harp on, not mine. I live in a fairly large metropolitan city, and although my community of acquaintances and friends who've experienced homebirth is small, not a single one of them has ever had a child die, or any other complications that required intervention of any kind. Wait, I take that back, I have one friend who had to have a c-section after a homebirth, because her midwives were as lame as regular doctors. But in comparison, almost all of the people I know who chose a "safe" hospital birth got interventions or c-sections a-plenty. As far as I'm concerned, THEY'RE lucky to be alive after those kinds of unnecessary experiments.

"It's also important to be educated so you don't withhold life saving treatment from your child because you believe made up propaganda."

Again, what planet are you on? Are you high? I never withheld life-saving treatment from my child, nor do I know of any homebirthing parent who would do the same. That is just ludicrous and inflammatory.

"YOU need to do some serious reading, studying and learning. Thusfar, all you have done is spout someone else's made up claims and made up a new claim of your own. You don't appear to know anything about the basics of childbirth, the inherent risks of neonatal and maternal mortality, or basic statistics. You are not in a position to evaluate what you read; you just believe it if it appeals to you."

Here we go again. A mouthpiece of the mainstream medical establishment spouts off from on high about how ordinary mothers can't possibly know as much as their hallowed members, since we don't read what they read and believe what they believe.

It's oh-so-transparent, and oh-so-tired. Don't you have some housecleaning to do?