Can someone please tell what the deal is with that blog? I'm doing some work on homebirhs and I was excited to see the blog and thought 'what a great idea'. Until I realized that it wasn't a debate at all but a tirade against anything not pro-interventionist obstetrics. When I said something 'out of line' , I was personally attacked and accused of endangering my child (I mentioned that I'd had a large fetal size estimate but still had a natural birth, which is in accordance even with ACOG guidelines as the estimate was just under their limit). I was absolutely shocked, to say the least. I found my words twisted, changed and out of context and when I pointed out glaring errors, they were completely ignored. Is this site actually rabidly anti-homebirth? Who is the blogger? Is she really a doctor? Is her critique of Johnson and Daviss justified?

Thanks!

Ahh, I see you have run across Amy Tuteur, our very own Bill O’Reilley of the birth world. Like him, her intent is to steamroller you; any overlap with the facts in her rants is strictly coincidental.

Some weeks ago, someone e-mailed me asking who she was. I said that I didn’t know, but it might be interesting to poke around on the internet and find out. A week or so later, my correspondent got back to me. She wrote that she could verify that Amy is a real person, but not that Amy is an M.D., much less an obstetrician. At least, she could find no license to practice medicine for Amy. My correspondent also found that some of Amy’s domain names are held publicly, but who holds the registration on homebirthdebate.com is not, which is something that can be done at an additional fee. This raises the question of why she would conceal the domain backer, especially since she has not done this with the others. She has also gone to the trouble and expense of copyrighting homebirth debate, which denies others access to the term. My correspondent speculates that Amy may be fronting a disinformation campaign. Blogs have become a common tool for this sort of thing. It’s an interesting, if somewhat paranoid, thought. If she is, an obvious suspect comes to mind for which entity might be backing her. It is certainly one that has deliberately spread disinformation in the past.

My advice to you is the same as was given to me when she started posting on my Forum: Don’t feed the dragon. I had no idea who she was at first so I refuted her objections to a study showing that elective cesarean surgery increased the neonatal death rate. That segued into her criticisms of the MANA 2000 study, which I rebutted as well. If you look at the top of the topic list, you will see a link marked “search.” If you search this Forum’s posts on “Tuteur,” you should turn up our exchange and see my defense of these studies, and how I handled her. My strategy worked well. She hasn’t been back.

-- Henci

Here's a bit of irony for everyone to enjoy: I found this forum through her blog. How funny is that? She mentioned this forum in a recent post whining about how Henci won't debate her. So at least some good has come from her site- I now have the privilege of communicating with THE Henci Goer! I must say, I was quite geek-happy to find this forum.

The comment that I left on Amy's blog was something to the effect that Henci doesn't need to debate, because she isn't so desperate to have people believe her like Amy. Henci simply writes from her perspective, and shares her wisdom with those of us who want to learn from her. (Something for which I am eternally grateful) Amy's behavior, on the other hand,  reeks of desperation and defensiveness. Henci's sage righteousness (not to be confused with Amy's SELF-righteousness) is afforded only to those who speak the truth.

While I know that talking to Amy is definitely a lost cause, I must say that some of the regular contributors are actually quite reasonable people. I have engaged in respectful, productive debate on that site. I do so because I see the politics of birth becoming very polarized. While it certainly can be frustrating at times, I feel as though it's important for me to reach across the chasm rather than just 'preaching to the choir'. My debates tend to be more philosophical than scientific. My take is that we need to look at WHY women want homebirths in the first place, and support measures like the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (www.motherfriendly.org) We need to make hospitals more, um, HOSPITABLE!

Oh but something very suspicious about that site- "Dr. Amy" always responds to posts almost instantaneously, EVERY single time. I have visited the site at different times on different days and "she" is always there. Amy Tutuer may be a real person, but the "Dr. Amy" persona is, in my opinon, clearly more than one person. No one can be online 24/7. That, coupled with the fact that the domain backer is concealed, definitely tells me that something's rotten in the state of homebirth debate.

Keep up the good work, Henci.

Thank you for those kind words. I find it delightful that you found this Forum via her blog.

I am fascinated by your statement that "Amy Tuteur" always responds immediately to posts. How is it possible to know this? Arguing somewhat against the theory that Amy isn't one person is that she seems to have a distinctive voice. Arguing for it is that the idea of a disinformation home birth blog isn't as farfetched as it would seem. Mothering Magazine recently outed some supposed breastfeeding info sites that were actually being run by formula companies.

-- Henci

Being able to detect flaws in logic will never do for Tuteur's blog. You'll do much better here. 

-- Henci

Gee...I'm a scientist by schooling (B.S. Biochemistry, some graduate course work...), and I don't know precisely what percentage of the earth is covered in water (I think it is about 75%, is that close enough for Dr. Amy???) nor do I have the foggiest clue how far away the moon is.

But does not knowing these things have ANY impact on my day to day life?  Not in the least.  What does have an impact on my day to day life (because I'm an Environmental, Health, and Safety Specialist) is EPA and OSHA regulations...which I'm quite well versed in, and I'd bet in a pop quiz on those topics I'd beat Dr. Amy quite soundly.  And really, the principles behind these regulations have MUCH more of an inpact on working Americans than knowing how far away the earth is from the moon or how much water is on earth.  Because...uuummm...oh, wait...I guess I'm not helping Dr. Amy out with my job because...

...the primary function of my job is to KEEP PEOPLE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.

LOL.