I've seen plenty of bad science as a specialist in breastfeeding and natural birth.
Mothers were told to diet during pregnancy to ensure a small baby who would be easier to birth. My own doctor in 1985 told me to take up smoking next time, after my first child was born at a 10 healthy pounds.
I've seen doctors take over the process of birth, by forcing women to lie on their backs to labor and push out a baby. This is bad for the mother and baby, as it goes against gravity, and doesn't allow the birth canal to open fully. But this position is easier on the doctor/voyeur. Then doctors could be a "hero" and "deliver" the baby themselves with episiotomies and forceps.
I've seen doctors use forceps, suction cups, large episiotomies, dangerous drugs, overly strong epidurals, to disempower the ability of a woman's body to give birth. I've seen forceps damage babies' heads. I've known of episiotomies that ruptured the vagina into the colon. I've seen babies born so drugged from the mother through the placenta, they couldn't nurse. I've seen women so incapacitated by their spinal anesthesia, they can't raise their heads off their bed, much less lift and feed and care for their babies. For weeks!
I've heard women tell their stories. Of how doctors, even hospital "midwives," shamed them for vocalizing, or for taking a natural instinctive squatting position to labor and push. Of how monitors strapped around their bellies made it impossible to get out of bed, be upright, and move around during labor. Their labors stalled and then they "needed" drugs to start labor again.
I myself was starved and dehydrated during my first long labor, causing it to stall, and me "needing" to have morphine to rest my exhausted body and uterus. Then I "needed" Pitocin to start labor again, since the morphine stopped the labor. I went 36 hours with no food, no water, just ice chips, while doing the hardest physical work of my life.
I've heard of doctors sewing up womens' episiotomies extra tight "for the husband," wink wink.
Millions and billions of male babies were and are circumcised (this is pushed as a matter of course by doctors and nurses), which prevents them from nursing properly, as they pass out immediately, for hours, from the pain, and then are screaming and/or lethargic for days. Parents are sometimes not even asked if they want their sons circumcised. It's just assumed it should happen, and so millions and billions of males are damaged against their will, and even against their parents' wishes, and have their natural functions compromised for life. Where's the science there?
Again and again, I've heard of doctors telling women to quit breastfeeding at the first hint of a lactation difficulty, or if the mother needs a certain drug, or needs to go back to work outside the home. Almost always, this isn't necessary, and harms the baby.
I've heard of doctors agreeing with the fathers of the babies, who didn't want their wives to breastfeed in public, but to be given a bottle of formula. This causes the mother's milk to begin drying up. The formula of cow's milk or soy is a common allergen as well. This causes "colic," since the baby's stomach and gut is in extreme pain. Doctors used to pass out morphine to be given to
colicky babies.
I know untold numbers of doctors only give lip service to breastfeeding, to this day, while taking money, new hospital wards and wings, and very fancy very expensive vacations from formula companies. Formula companies pay for doctor's children's tuitions. They have pens and notepads on their desks where parents can see them, labeled Enfamil or Similac. They sell breastfeeding mothers' addresses to formula companies, so the women receive a case or 3 of "free" formula in the first challenging weeks home with their newborns. Mothers often lose hope with a fussy baby in the middle of a long night, and succumb to giving one bottle of formula, which is heavy and indigestible, which makes the baby fall asleep, which then causes the mother to believe her milk was inadequate, and quit breastfeeding.
Mothers, ordinary mothers, non-scientists, have had to fight for aware labor, for rooming in with their newborns, for having a partner or close friend present for them at the birth. Mothers, ordinary women, not scientists, have had to fight to continue breastfeeding when doctors tell them to quit at the drop of a hat.
Science didn't know breastmilk (all mammals' milk) was a live food, a perfect food with specific proportions of nutrients, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, salts, and sugars, for the young of whatever species, full of immunoglobulins which set up a new person's/animal's immune system for life. Science only saw that breasts and nipples had bacteria on them. So doctors mistakenly recommended mothers clean their nipples with alcohol before breastfeeding, causing the nipples to crack and bleed, and the mothers to quit breastfeeding in pain. Science also recommended mothers "toughen up" their delicate nipples with rough washcloths before birth. Babies were breastfed on their backs instead of facing in to the mother, causing them to be unable to swallow, and to not latch on fully, and to cause the mother's nipples to be sore from the poor latch, and the baby to not get a good full feeding.
"Scientific" doctors also recommended mothers only nurse their babies every 4 hours (to "allow the breasts to fill"), which isn't nearly often enough, and caused failure to thrive. Then they told the mothers their milk was too thin and weak, because the mother was too nervous, and so she should switch to formula (salty cow's milk and table sugar).
In the 20th century, "science" told parents that a baby had to sleep in a separate bed, in a separate room, to not be picked up ever except to feed it. And you could prop the bottle so the baby could self feed as soon as possible! And give a pacifier when the baby really needed food. Separate sleeping isn't good for many mammals, including humans. The baby goes into a too deep sleep, and may begin to dehydrate and starve. And the mother's milk supply isn't required and starts to dry up prematurely.
Science told mothers that a baby would be spoiled by feeding too often, not realizing human (primate) milk is dilute and needs to be fed almost continuously. Look at any ape family! The infants are never put down and are feeding more often than not.
Doctors recommended mothers and fathers take long dates, or even vacations, away from their young infants, "for the sake of their marriage," ending the breastfeeding relationship prematurely, causing sicker infants who needed more doctor visits and hospitalizations, and antibiotics.
Flawed science told women formula was cleaner and purer than human milk, even when all it was, was diluted pasteurized cow's milk and sucrose (Karo syrup), as it was from 1900 to the 1950's. They knew this "formula" had no Vitamin C, so mothers were told to give their 2 month old babies tomato or orange juice (known allergens). They knew their "formula" had no vitamin B, so mothers were told to give their 2 or 3 month olds wheat based cereal before the baby was meant to swallow solid food. They hadn't identified taurine yet, so generations of babies' eyes didn't develop normally and were weak, necessitating glasses at a very young age.
In short, flawed science caused breastfeeding to almost die out in the mid 20th century, and it's still not that popular today. Science caused harm to humans.
I could go on forever on this subject. I taught it for over 25 years.
To sum up, the scientific method can be flawed. Those "doubts" scientists have are often covered up by the time their "science" is applied. Formula companies hostile to breastfeeding funded and still sometimes fund research on human milk. Coverups of data do exist, in the human milk field and many other areas. Big Pharma for example. Oxycodone anyone?
Scientific results are often inconvenient for companies just interested in making a buck, and the hell with consumers who are damaged. Research is incomplete, the wrong questions are asked, the test subjects are inappropriate, the terms are not fully defined, data is flawed, results are skewed and then covered up.
Sometimes people need to look beyond "science" for answers on how to live a healthy life.