Medical Examiners Association Warns Stillbirth Test Akin To Witch Trials
The centuries-old forensic lung float test, in which a baby's lungs are placed in a jar of water to see if they float (indicating that the baby had taken its first breaths), has long been criticized as junk science. Experts warn the test could be "more dangerous than useful."
The Nation's largest organization for medical examiners has issued a warning about a controversial, centuries-old forensic test that has contributed to cases in which pregnant women have been charged with murder. The premise behind the lung float test is simple: If a baby was born alive and then died, air from its first breaths would cause its lungs to float in a jar with water. If the baby was stillborn, the lack of air in the lungs would cause them to sink. But the many critics of the test have long labeled it junk science and drawn parallels between the test and witch trials, where women were deemed witches based on whether they floated or sank. (Eldeib, 1/6)
Kaitlin spent the first weeks of her newborn son’s life in a panic. The hospital where she gave birth in October 2022 had administered a routine drug test, and a nurse informed her the lab had confirmed the presence of opiates. Child welfare authorities opened an investigation. Months later, after searching her home and interviewing her older child and ex-husband, the agency dropped its investigation, having found no evidence of abuse or neglect, or of drug use. (Hines, 1/6)
Also —
Planned Parenthood in Rolla has closed its brick-and-mortar location and will no longer serve patients in person. The health care organization shut its Rolla offices at the start of 2026, citing attacks on health care access and funding, including Missouri lawmakers blocking Medicaid patients from accessing care from Planned Parenthood. It will now only serve patients online. (Ahl, 1/6)
To date, an unprecedented 19 states have introduced upward of three dozen bills to improve menopause care and treatment; eight of those bills are now law. (Weiss-Wolf, 1/5)
Both poverty and race were linked to preterm birth in a U.S. population-based cross-sectional study. Among mother-infant dyads in households with income below the federal poverty level, preterm birth rates significantly increased over time, from 9.7% in 2011 to 11.1% in 2021. (Robertson, 1/2)
Maternal-fetal medicine doctors regularly care for high-risk pregnancies and rare complications, but a California medical team saw an exceedingly unique case: a healthy baby born at term from an abdominal pregnancy during which the mom didn't know she was pregnant due to a known massive ovarian cyst. (Robertson, 1/5)
