Tummy Measurement During Pregnancy Feb 23 11:59am At each prenatal visit your doctor or midwife probably measures your uterus to see how the baby is growing. In the first half of pregnancy, the size is estimated by how big the uterus feels -- 15 weeks is like a large grapefruit, give or take. After... Read more

Belly Dancing in Pregnancy Feb 21 06:16am I was on the local television news recently to comment on women learning to belly dance in pregnancy -- whether it is safe, and what the trend is all about. So before I was going to be quoted, I did a little research about belly dancing. For me,... Read more

Plus Size and Pregnant Feb 15 06:24am I just got hold of Big Beautiful and Pregnant , written by Dr. Cornelia Van Der Ziel and Jacqueline Tourville exclusively for plus-sized women. So I wanted to see how I stacked up on the topic of pregnancy and overweight. I went online to check out... Read more

Why Pregnant Women Don't Topple Forward Feb 13 12:58pm Walking upright and using our hands for other things is a tremendous advantage over four-legged life. But for the female of the species, it compromises carrying a baby. In four-legged animals, the tummy hangs down, the spine is relatively straight,... Read more

When You Don't Achieve the Birth of Your Dreams Feb 06 05:40am A new mom I know pretty well, who I'll call Jane, had a baby by unexpected cesarean a few weeks ago. She'd had a doula there for her birth because she had clear ideas of how she wanted her baby to come. Jane had prepared for natural... Read more

When Your Baby is Breech Jan 29 01:09pm One of my long-time patients is due to have her fourth baby in a few weeks (she gave me permission to tell this story). She was measuring kind of big, so we got an ultrasound to see whether everything was okay. The obstetrician who did the... Read more

Lifestyle and Fertility: What You Can Do Jan 19 09:26am Getting pregnant is a game of odds. Each time they "try," couples don't have a 100 percent chance of getting pregnant, but most have some chance of success. On average, maximally fertile couples have about a 30 percent chance of getting... Read more

Do Birth Plans Affect the Course of Labor? Jan 16 11:32am Many parents-to-be create birth plans in an effort to direct their care during labor. As I have said before, a birth plan can be really helpful as a communication tool with your birth team, but it can also be perceived as trying to control events... Read more

Dealing With an Unexpected Finding at Birth Jan 08 11:48am One of the most difficult moments for me as a doctor came during a routine cesarean. The mother had a medical reason to have a c-section, so it was planned ahead and low key. But when I delivered the baby, I could see right away that she had a cleft... Read more

When Your Period is Late Jan 05 10:39am Last week one of my friends told me that her period was late and she didn't know if she was pregnant. She wants another baby, but she didn't feel pregnant, and her urine tests (many) were all negative. She was at cycle day 36 at that time and... Read more