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Friday, July 26, 2013

"Dr." Amy to speak at September ACOG conference

I just heard it through the grapevine that the formidable "Dr. Amy" of homebirth hater fame is on the docket to speak at an ACOG conference in September. And not surprisingly, one of her topics is "Everything an obstetrician needs to know about homebirth."


Of course, I don't know personally, but I'm going to take a wild guess that she's never attended a homebirth before. Yet she is probably considered the "expert" source on them, most likely because she squawks the loudest. Never mind what actually comes out of her mouth.

Here are her "credentials," according to the ACOG PDF handout:

Um, no, not exactly. Although I realize that the title "Dr." is often a courtesy after a physician has left practice or retired, this is incredibly misleading. My father-in-law is a retired physician that most people address as "doctor," but he certainly doesn't go around representing himself as a licensed, practicing physician. I would hope those in attendance actually know better when listening to her blather on for an hour about how much she hates homebirth and the women who choose them.

A Google search of her name produced the obvious results referring to her blog and "advocacy." She shows up on a number of websites like Healthgrades, listing a physical address to what would seem an office, but no reviews from actual patients. And when you search her name on the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine database, you come up with this:


She spends countless hours trolling the internetz for every story ever published about homebirth and basically makes all natural birth advocates everywhere out to be liars. Yet she continues to represent herself as a licensed physician who is still practicing medicine. Hypocrisy much?

Since ACOG is trying to set guidelines that offer women the best care while treating them with dignity and respect, I'm not really sure how she fits into their lineup.

According to ACOG's website, they acknowledge that
"Most women have normal conception, fetal growth, labor and birth and require minimal-to-no intervention in the process. Women and their families have different views about childbearing based on their knowledge, experiences, belief systems, culture, and social and family backgrounds." (Really? They really believe that?! Who knew.)
It goes on to explain their idea of what "patient-centered care" means:
""Patient-centered" means that health care providers, and the system they practice within, accept that the values, culture, choices, and preferences of a woman and her family are relevant within the context of promoting optimal health outcomes." 
They also acknowledge that part of that patient-centered care includes having not only a skilled attendant (which can come in other forms besides an OBGYN), but also "supportive resources."

Based on their description, I don't think Dr. Amy fits into their scheme of things at all. Either that, or they're just very out of touch with the way a majority of births are carried out these days. Phrases like "support" and "education" are all relative, when you consider that many patients often get all their information from their physician and trust no one else in the process.

On the surface, healthcare initiatives and much of the jargon ACOG churns out sound great - but when you actually ask women about their experiences, it seems that there is a major disconnect. ACOG itself argues that they feel the hospital is the safest setting for giving birth, but admits that it "respects the right of a woman to make a medically informed decision about delivery." It's clear that Dr. Amy does not. I am really curious to hear how this one is going to play out.

From The SOb's website: What a caring, compassionate and professional
way to promote your "advocacy." Would you want someone this vulgar and
derisive in charge of your care? 
More reading:
The C in ACOG Stands for Castrated 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe some good will come from this? Maybe her bat-shit crazy will come out as it always does and her colleagues will see that she has nothing credible to say and that her intentions and motivations are purely hate for home birth and not for advocating safe care for women and babies. One could hope at least.

If she was against home birth but spent her time trying to advocate for better care in hospitals to try to get the home birth crowd to the "safe" hospitals, then I could respect her for that (disagree, but respect). But she continually mocks evidence based care solely because natural birthers advocate for it, and not because there's anything wrong with it. We've even seen her mock breastfeeding for Heavens sake! Even formula companies claim to know that breast is best. She is so hell bent on attacking the home birthing/ natural community that she comes off as a complete loon.

No doctor I know (I'm married to one, my father is one, and we have plenty of doctor friends) has the time to troll on the internet like she does, hell they barely have time to eat!

The Deranged Housewife said...

LOL Seriously. I wonder, will anyone attend? Will the room be empty? haha

sara r. said...

Wouldn't this be a lot like my midwife doing a talk at a conference about what midwives need to know about being an OB? Just ridiculous.

Peggy said...

She started the "homebirth doubles or triples the risk of neonatal death" line that ACOG later started using. Apparently her influence within ACOG is growing.

But ACOG shouldn't be worrying about homebirth; they should be worrying about the shift to CNMs and birth centers that is coming under Obamacare. The legislation allows Medicaid to pay for birth center births, where birth center is defined as basically anywhere but your own home.

ob said...

The ACA could provide just the kick needed to get birth centers off the ground. This is the only answer to the ridiculous section rate.
ALso, thanks for keeping my blog on your roll. I will go back public soon.

The Deranged Housewife said...

ob - thanks for your comment! I enjoy your posts. :) Hope to see you soon.