Book Review – PUSH BACK by Dr. Amy – A few thoughts from Birth Activist Jenny Hatch PhD MH
Dr Amy’s book Push Back was published this past week and I spent the money and wasted a couple hours wading through her blatherings these past few days.
She (and the 23 guys who play her on the internet) published a trailer for her book:
https://twitter.com/JennyHatch/status/723904580526854144
And she has been all over the web promoting the book. A summary of the various places where people are chatting is found here on her blog.
So, I will keep this short as I plan to use this review on Amazon as well as here on my blog.
Push Back
Guilt in the age of Natural Parenting
by
Amy Tutuer, MD
A book review by Jenny Marie Hatch PhD MH
As the queen of sanctimommies I was really sad that Dr. Amy did not mention
*The Unassisted Childbirth Movement
or
*Planned Husband Wife Childbirth in her book.
I only pop in to read her blog every couple of months, so I don’t know if she has continued harping against my lifestyle choices, but I have to say, overall I felt really left out.
Why Dr. Amy, Why?
After so many great chats on blogs, chat rooms, our own personal blogs, and in the comment section of every newspaper and magazine of note HOW did you fail, I mean utterly FAIL to mention us in your book?
You dismissed my pal Deborah and Orgasmic Childbirth as if by waving some sort of magical, mystical, (dare I say it?) INTUITIVE wand you could just dismiss the experience of thousands of mothers and breezily say, “didn’t happen, and I’m a doctor Dammit”.
I pretty much felt like taking a bath after I read Push Back. Icky icky stuff.
I will post the chapter headings because they really do encapsulate it pretty well…
The book is broken into three parts.
Part One: Subverting the Science (It was interesting to me that despite how much she is always yelling about science, over and over in the book it was anecdotes that were used to illustrate various points.)
Chapter 1: Natural Childbirth is Nothing Like Childbirth in Nature
Chapter 2: Interventions are Preventive Medicine
Chapter 3: There is NO BENEFIT to Refusing Pain Relief
Chapter 4: The Right C-Section Rate (Not surprisingly she justifies it right where it is at in America right now at 30% – makes no mention of the fact that certain hospitals have 80 to 90% rates)
Chapter 5: Breast is NOT always Best
Chapter 6: There’s no Science That Supports Attachment Parenting
Part II The Natural Parenting Industry
Chapter 7: Who Hijacked Childbirth?
Chapter 8: The Commodification of Birth
Chapter 9: The Business of Brestfeeding
Part III A Sexist Philosophy of Privilege
Chapter 10: How Natural Parenting is Anti-Feminist
Chapter 11: Women do NOT have other ways of knowing
Chapter 12: Sanctimommies and the Joys of Sharing
Conclusion – Push Back Against the Guilt of Natural Parenting
For all of Dr. Amy’s harping on those who make a buck or two off of the promotion of natural mothering, the big, fat, noxious, pink, drunk, elephant in the room is the amount of money parents shell out to pay for medical prenatal care and hospital birth. Nothing is mentioned of the financial costs of NICU care for sick babies, the high rates of depression, anxiety, and trauma for mothers and babies when birth is highly mechanistic, and/or the increasing medical tyranny encapsulated by the term “medical kidnappings“.
The very first essay on parenting I wrote back in 1999 was titled Family Sovereignty. I personally believe that Dr. Amy began her first blog Homebirth Debate as a response to the final paragraph of my essay, which had an unbelievable amount of traffic all over the web for years after I wrote it.
In that final paragraph I asked…
“As I have struggled to make decisions for and in behalf of my children until they are old enough to make their own choices, I have come to adopt a few principles and beliefs about Knowledge, Freedom, and Self Government. I hope to create a dialog on Family Sovereignty that moves way beyond the current supposedly relevant debates over day care and nationalized health care. I am interested in debating with those professionals who think they know best how children should be birthed, nurtured, healed, and educated and would use the courts to force their cult of professionalism on those of us who are following our hearts to a more gentle and empowered lifestyle. So, let the debate begin….”
I have spent just about every spare moment these past 17 years engaged in that debate on dozens of forums all over the web. I appreciate Dr. Amy for one reason and one reason alone. She provides PERFECT counterpoint to the debate and can always be counted on to spew in the most noxious way her thoughts on the most precious thing in my life.
If you would like to read my own thoughts on Mothering just check out my books on Amazon!
https://twitter.com/JennyHatch/status/723924021767630848
Navel Gazing Narcissist Mommies of the World UNITE!!!
Jenny Hatch
If you would like to read my previous posts on Dr. Amy, which are some of my high traffic posts on this blog, just scroll down to the bottom to click on the links.
The most high trafficked post about the dear doctor is my open and most public and serious apology…
My most humble and sincere apology to Dr. Amy
BLOG POSTS ABOUT THE INFAMOUS DR. AMY WRITTEN BY JENNY HATCH
https://twitter.com/JennyHatch/status/723908541745000448
DR. AMY TUTUER MD (WHOOPS, SPELLED IT RONG, ITS TUTTER, UH, TUTEUR, NO, UM TOOTER, YUP THAT’S IT…), I DARE YOU TO DEBATE ME
WHOSE YOUR DADDY? JENNY HATCH RESPONDS TO EVOLUTIONARY OBSTETRICIAN DR. AMY TUTEUR MD
DR. POOPER SAYS I’M IGNORANT
DR. AMY’S CACKLING ABOUT DEAD BABES IN COLORADO
DR. AMY IN COMPLETE DENIAL ABOUT THE SEXUALITY OF CHILDBIRTH
IF I WERE TO HAVE DR. AMY TOOTER MD ON MY BLOG TALK RADIO SHOW, THIS IS WHAT I WOULD ASK…
My friend Dr. Stuart James Fischbein MD used his blog to retort to Dr. Amy in 2011. Give it a read, he makes some excellent points.
Natural Family Blog 
Hi Jenny,
Thank you for your heads-up.
My hat’s off to you for your courage in investigating what she’s published in this book. It is certainly always good to know one’s enemy.
Personally, I prefer to not pollute my mind with it, and I know that I would only get angry and agitated at the absolute non-sensical idiocy and venom that she has probably regurgitated onto those pages. 🙂
So if at some point you want to give a very brief “cliff notes” of the points that she makes in this book, I would be interested. 🙂
One of my nemesis has apparently aligned herself with “Dr. Amy”, and speaks against the “Brewer Diet” in the same style and vitriol and lack of common sense that “DA” speaks against the normal physiology of pregnancy & labor & birth.
Thanks again, Joy
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Yeah Joy, I pretty much felt like taking a bath after I read it.
Icky icky stuff.
I will post the chapter headings because they really do encapsulate it pretty well…
The book is broken into three parts.
Part One: Subverting the Science (It was interesting to me that despite how much she is always yelling about science, over and over in the book it was Anecdotes that were used to illustrate various points.)
Chapter 1: Natural Childbirth is Nothing Like Childbirth in Nature
Chapter 2: Interventions are Preventive Medicine
Chapter 3: There is NO BENEFIT to Refusing Pain Relief
Chapter 4: The Right C-Section Rate (Not surprisingly she justifies it right where it is at 30% – makes no mention of the fact that certain hospitals have 80 to 90% rates)
Chapter 5: Breast is NOT always Best
Chapter 6: There’s no Science That Supports Attachment Parenting
Part II The Natural Parenting Industry
Chapter 7: Who Hijacked Childbirth?
Chapter 8: The Commodification of Birth
Chapter 9: The Business of Brestfeeding
Part III A Sexist Philosophy of Privilege
Chapter 10: How Natural Parenting is Anti-Feminist
Chapter 11: Women do NOT have other ways of knowing
Chapter 12: Sanctimommies and the Joys of Sharing
Conclusion – Push Back Against the Guilt of Natural Parenting
Love you so much Joy!
Jenny
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