According to Peter Rosi, M.D., a Chicago-area obstetrician who has been sued more than ten times, and criminally prosecuted, for medical mistakes including errors made during home births, and pediatric care leading to infant brain damage, “[e]ighty percent of complications in childbirth are psychological.” Dr. Rosi contends that “[b]abies can be killed by a mother’s attitude.”
In Illinois, Dr. Rosi advised pregnant women whose home births ran into problems to drive long distances to hospitals where he had privileges. For example, Dr. Rosi has testified that he instructed a woman in labor to crouch on all fours in the back seat of her car while her family drove her 75 miles to a hospital where he had medical privileges. Dr. Rosi followed the laboring mother in his car. While there were 7 closer hospitals which could have performed a c-section, Dr. Rosi did not advise the family to go there for emergent medical care. According to court records, the baby was born dead, following inhalation of his own waste. When questioned about his handling of this case, Dr. Rosi testified that “[b]abies die.”