AMA: Ricki Don't Know 'Bout Birthin' No Babies

There's cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and ... did we mention cancer? But the American Medical Association has its scalpels out for that evil medical scourge -- Ricki Lake.

The AMA has issued a resolution slamming Ricki and her pet cause, midwife-aided home-birth baby delivery, as chronicled in her film The Business of Being Born. What's more, they're using Ricki as a tool to get laws passed that would mandate that the "safest setting" for birth is in the hospital ... where OB/GYNs get paid, of course.

Tori Spelling as a suspect mom, we get. But Ricki?



Tags: AMA, Midwife, Ricki Lake, RickiLake, The Business of Being Born, TheBusinessOfBeingBorn

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1. OMG, watching her give birth would be like watching a Buffalo pop one out in a field!!!

Posted at 1:11PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Duhneese Richerds

2. All I know is, if I had chosen to give birth at home, my baby would have died and my life would have been in danger as well. An emergency C-section saved my son's life.

Sure it works for many people, but when you chose to give birth at home you are taking a GIGANTIC risk. If you want to argue with me on that, go back to the beginning of my comment and read again.

Posted at 1:17PM on Jun 17th 2008 by dixiegirl

3. A am a nurse, have your babies at a hospital...... So many things can go wrong!

Posted at 1:09PM on Jun 17th 2008 by patti

4. 1st and I like her when she was fat. Now she;s skinny and CRAZY!!!

Posted at 1:10PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Tkennedy

5. WTF are you always bashing Tori?

Posted at 1:09PM on Jun 17th 2008 by ?

6. Normally I have a lot of respect for the AMA but this time they are just plain wrong. If the pregnancy is normal, there is no reason to go to a hospital. And almost all of the potential problems can be determined ahead of time with various tests. I gave birth in a hospital, the doctors were not prepared despite the known potential complications and in the end they used suction to pull the baby out which bruised her head and made it impossible for her to nurse. A midwife would have known enough to reach into the birth canal and gently guide the baby out. Obstetricians are necessary for some births but midwives are better for the vast majority and a lot less expensive.

Go Sox

Posted at 1:19PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Baseball Junkie

7. I only give birth in hospitals. Two breech births, two c-sections, and one rupture of the uterus.

Posted at 1:15PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Kat

8. This is completely absurd. Women have been delivering babies since the beginning of birthing. There should be NO laws to make women use a hospital. I delivered my baby in a hospital with a high risk pregnancy. That doesn't mean every woman should have to. Many woman experience normal pregnancies and have the right to a more natural, comfortable birth. It would have been lovely to have that option. The government is completely out of control.

Posted at 1:16PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Whitney

9. I am all for epiderals and hospitals, but this is every womans personal choice.

Posted at 1:17PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Kelli

10. Ricki is living in the middle ages. Why has the death rate gone down in the past hundred years among newborns? HOSPITALS and DOCTORS. duh! She needs to get a clue. Her little movie leaves out many of the horror stories of home birth. It's dangerous. Home births are suited for normal pregnancy and delivery, but how would a woman know if she is going to have a normal delivery and baby or not. It's impossible to predict.

Posted at 1:20PM on Jun 17th 2008 by diane

11. Get checkups before hand if everything is okay, then do your midwife route with the hospital on standby.

Posted at 1:23PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Buster

12. Me too. I would have been dead too if I even tried giving birth at home. I had to tell my doctor at the hospital that I ruptured my uterus. I told her to get me to surgery. After I threw up some blood, did they hurry up. Not that you get the best care in the hospital either, but they have all the equipment.

High risk pregnancies should give birth in the hospital. Normal ones can give birth at home, but that can't be for me. :)

Posted at 1:25PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Kat

13. Oh, and that birth, during which my son would have died without an emergency C-section...it followed a completely normal pregnancy with no indication that anything was going to go wrong.

Don't talk to mothers who successfully gave birth at home, talk to those who had to be rushed to the hospital during the at-home birth. Talk to mothers like me, who, without very fast medical intervention, would have lost her baby. My son was purple when they pulled him out because the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. We had only minutes to get him out. A ride to the hospital would have ensured his death.

Posted at 1:34PM on Jun 17th 2008 by dixiegirl

14. Really? Brining back ye olde witch hunt? The medical profession will never stop trying to get rid of midwives. It's the Crucible all over again.

Posted at 1:30PM on Jun 17th 2008 by missy

15. Are you kidding me the AMA does not even want Nurse Practitioners or Physicians Assistants to cut into their businesses. It is a great monopoly. Control the supply and you control the cost.

Posted at 1:33PM on Jun 17th 2008 by Buster

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