In childbirth politics as in all politics, extreme viewpoints make the news, and sensible centrists are ignored. A couple of years ago, Ricki Lake provoked a firestorm of debate about home birth with her film, The Business of Being Born, which showcased gloriously crunchy New York City home births, and made the case for the home birth option. Obstetricians responded with censorious anger, shouting at Lake via condescending statements from the American College of Obstetrics an

On Friday, April 4, sportscasters Boomer and Carton apologized for their remarks criticizing baseball player Daniel Murphy’s decision to miss two games to be with his wife after the birth of their child.  Boomer and Carton seemed to be shocked to have been taken seriously, and truly sorry that they had caused an annoyance and distraction for Murphy.  So how did the apology measure up to my hopes for where this conversation, now started, might proceed?  Boomer did most of the

Yesterday, Momsrising.org and others excoriated sportscasters Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton for obnoxiously opining that baseball player Daniel Murphy should have told his wife to have an elective cesarean section, so that the birth would be done before the season started.  Boomer and Carton were annoyed that Murphy missed two games to take 3 days’ paternity leave, to be with his wife after the birth of their child. As an advocate of evidence-based birth practices, I of cou