I agree that pelvimetry can be misleading -- that many practitioners are not
good judges of how big a baby can be pushed out, and that pelvises do "give"
during labor.  I do think that an experienced midwife or ob/gyn would be
able to detect abnormalities of the pelvic outlet such as deformation from
childhood rickets or malnutrition or a broken coccyx.  Re the doctor who
says the woman can't birth a 7 pounder and then she has a 9 pounder, we have
to remember that most of the problems comes from too big of a head, or too
big of shoulders, so it depends on the size of the baby's head (which also
"gives" during labor) or shoulders (which don't give unless the clavicles
break) versus the size of the mother's pelvic outlet, not just how much the
baby weighs.  A 9 pound baby can have a small-enough head or shoulders.

When I read the complaint about the toddler who ate only potato chips and
chicken nuggets, I have to admit my first thought was: "What's the matter
with that?"  Having had way too much experience with children in Mali whose
nutritional problems are protein-calorie malnutrition, I thought to myself
"Hey, potato chips and chicken nuggets both have lots of calories.  Chicken
nuggets are mostly protein (and fat).  Many children in the world would be
very well served by a diet of potato chips and chicken nuggets compared to
their current diet of low-calorie/low-protein carbohydrate-based gruel made
with contaminated water."

Kathy Dettwyler
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