The Curious Silence about Babies Who Die at Homebirth

The CDC published an update on homebirth yesterday. 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% in 2004 to 1.09% in 2009. About 1 in every 90 births for non- Hispanic white women is now a home birth. Home births are less common among women of other racial or ethnic groups.

• Home births are more common among women aged 35 and over, and among women with several previous children.

• Home births have a lower risk profile than hospital births, with fewer births to teenagers or unmarried women, and with fewer preterm, low birthweight, and multiple births.

• The percentage of home births in 2009 varied from a low of 0.2% of births in Louisiana and the District of Columbia, to a high of 2.0% in Oregon and 2.6% in Montana.

But there’s one thing that the data brief didn’t mention at all: exactly how many of those babies died.

Vaccine Rejection: A Flat Earth Theory for the 21st Century

The flat-earthers are back!

Well, not exactly, but their descendants have come up with the flat-earth equivalent for the 21st century. They reject vaccination.

Vaccine rejectionists are all over the web promoting the “dangers” of vaccination. Vaccine rejectionism isn’t about vaccination, though. It’s all about parents and how they wish to view themselves.

It is important to understand that vaccine rejection is not based on science. There is no scientific data that supports vaccine rejection. Indeed vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements of all time and virtually every accusation about vaccines by vaccine rejectionists is factually false.

The Real Cookie Monsters

It saddens me greatly whenever I see young people publicly promote bigotry and hatred. My hope for the future lies with a new generation of open-minded and educated people.

Unfortunately groups like Honest Girl Scouts do their best to indoctrinate the next generation with hatred towards people who they deem “different” – people who already have a hard time in a society filled with people afraid of everything they don’t understand.

This time the face of the haters is a teenage girl scout named Taylor. She doesn’t like transgender girls being able to join the Girl Scouts. She’s calling for a “nationwide boycott of Girl Scout Cookies in response to GSUSA’s bias for transgenders”. It all started when Girl Scouts of Colorado stated in October last year that transgender children are welcome in their organisation.

The Misogyny at the Heart of Natural Childbirth

“The mother is the factory, and by education and care she can be made more efficient in the art of motherhood.”

That was written in 1942 by Grantly Dick-Read, widely considered to be the father of modern natural childbirth. Most people don’t realize that natural childbirth was invented by a man to convince middle and upper class white women to have more children and abandon their demands for political, economic, and educational equality.

Standing Up to Gender Bullying

You’ve probably seen this Tumblr post already, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

In summary: Kristen, a woman who works as a shift manager for Gamestop, recently witnessed a father trying to bully his son, age 10–12, out of buying a purple game controller along with a game with a female protagonist. Luckily, the boy’s elder brother, a high school wrestler,  stepped in and stood up to the man. Kristen also comforted the boy by assuring him that “There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it’s different than what people think you should.”