Are You Paying Too Much for Your Birth Control Pills? Dec 14 11:25am Birth control pills are not for everyone. But they are widely used, and there are lots of choices. Some pills have been around a long time and are available as generics, while others are newer and have brand names. As you can imagine, the ones that... Read more

Interpreting the Baby's Heart Rate Dec 12 07:25am For generations, birth attendants have used the heart rate to check the baby's condition. In modern obstetrics, we use the fetal monitor to assess the baby during labor, and sometimes during late pregnancy as well. We interpret the fetal monitor... Read more

When Ultrasound Sees Something Abnormal Dec 05 09:23pm Medicine is not always an exact science. When we do tests, like a fetal ultrasound, we get results that may look perfectly normal, or may look totally abnormal. But sometimes the findings are confusing, and sometimes things look different that what... Read more

Going Into Labor at Work Nov 30 10:38am Have you ever wondered what it is like for an obstetrician or labor nurse to have her baby? Last night on call, one of the longtime (I won't say old) labor and delivery nurses was telling me stories about pregnancies of our staff members. Most... Read more

Screening for Genetic Diseases Nov 28 10:47am When you think about genetic screening in pregnancy, you might think about amniocentesis, and other ways to test the fetus. But some tests can be done on the parents, before pregnancy is even attempted. Many conditions are caused by recessive genes.... Read more

Those First Few Days at Home Nov 17 01:00am Most people feel anxious bringing home their first baby. Susan Grant, a writer and commercial airline pilot, said she wondered, "Where's my checklist?" A pilot's perspective! But even those of us who aren't typically quite that... Read more

Myths About Labor: Dry Birth Nov 16 11:27am When I ask our labor and delivery nurses what they want me to write about, they usually suggest misconceptions and myths about labor. Dry birth is a good illustration of birth mythology. What is dry birth? Dry birth is said to occur when the bag of... Read more

Patient-Doctor Emailing: Pros and Cons Nov 05 01:44pm Do you email back and forth with your doctor? I haven't decided whether it works for me with my patients, so I don't give out my email address that often. But I work in a large hospital system, so my email address is pretty easy to guess, and... Read more

When an Epidural Isn't Possible Nov 02 04:01pm Epidural anesthesia has become so common that our nurses say a patient in labor "is ready for HER epidural" rather than "ready for AN epidural." In other words, it's assumed that each laboring woman has an epidural just... Read more

When to Schedule a Repeat Cesarean Nov 02 05:21am While some parents who had a prior baby by cesarean choose vaginal birth, others, for a variety of reasons, choose repeat cesarean. And while planned vaginal delivery is usually best when you wait for labor, cesareans may be better scheduled, since... Read more