GynoFiles

If you would like to scan over the basic pregnancy what to expect and advice for the questions you may have in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy: check the section I wrote for WebMD's eMedicine . Just published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology April 2018 was a quick compilation of the currently accepted pregnancy advice. Here's some highlights (and a bit of commentary): 1. Good diets probably substitute for prenatal vitamins. However, check with your gyno to determine if you personally have any nutritional deficiencies. 2. Probably do not need to eat any extra calories in the first trimester. 3. Artificial sweeteners have never been shown to cause birth defects. 4. You would probably have to drink over 10 cups of coffee a day to (possibly) harm your baby. There are other reasons not to consume at that level however! So keep coffee intake modest! 5. There is no real evidence that sushi is harmful in pregnancy if consumed in the US. 6. Do cook y...

Having a baby later in life is actually a marker for living longer! In studying Amish women, and women in Utah it is found that if you have a baby in late life (your 40s) you are four times as likely to live to over 100! Although for most pregnancy related complications Advanced Maternal Age is a term we have applied to women over age 35, for this we use the cut off of 40. Just because you wonder, we apply the term Advanced Paternal Age to men over 45. A new study published this year in Monopause by Dr Fagan and colleagues it is shown that there is a genetic marker, that probably relates to the health and fertility of these older moms that is a reason they live longer. There is a genetic sequence at the end of our chromosomes that repeat many times. It is thought to be a protection factor of the chromosome, and it's called the telomere. The telomere length is a marker for health. In older women who have become moms, it's longer. Life is associated with DNA turnover. Chr...

Mom's toss and turn at night, and often just can't get comfortable. Gynos are quick to point out that proper blood flow to the baby cannot occur when mom's are flat on their back, and mom's are horrified if they awake to find that they were happily snoozing on their back (not thought to be harmful in the context of shifting sleep positions). Poor sleep for those who are not pregnant can be an important contributing cause of both heart and endocrine disease, and it's likely no different in pregnancy. But the facts are not completely clear either! Two new studies look at overall sleep quality and what that does to the placenta, and in turn, what it does for developing babies. In a study from Obstetrics and Gycology Dr. Roxanna Twedt found that the worse a mom's sleep was in pregnancy the more likely she was to have poor blood sugar control if she was a gestational diabetic. A British Medical Journal study just published about causes of late pregnancy still birt...

Older moms are wiser moms, in that we all gain wisdom as we age; but older mothers are known to face more physical challenges during pregnancy. We've even asked ho w old is too old to have a baby ? Older fathers do have increased rate of abnormal sperm, but we've not shown any health risk to da d for being older .  Post-delivery there are long term health considerations. We have focused on some of the positives, even an older mom who breastfeeds will lower her risk of breast cancer. And there has been a lot of discussion about post partum health risks and benefits for all moms. Some even say we ‘lose a tooth for each baby’ meaning that without proper calcium, vitamin D and exercise bone health is compromised by being pregnant and breastfeeding. And now there is a new study presented at International Stroke Conference (ISC) 2016 that has shown that women who birth a child at age 40 years or older have a greater risk for hemorrhagic stroke later in life than younger mo...

Sanitation, irrigation, public campaigns, pesticides, pavement of the cities and many other urban advances have protected Americans from diseases, and the knowledge of mosquito born disease. For many of us it's the annoying bites we have to deal with during backyard summer cookouts or gardening, or in some cases the medicines we take to protect our selves if we are lucky enough to venture to the exotic parts of the world that also, unfortunately, have malaria. Now we are hearing about the newly discovered Zika virus, we are reminded about the many mosquito born diseases we have not though about for decades, if ever. The Zika virus poses an especially large threat to pregnant women. We read articles in the news on almost a daily basis regarding the evidence linking the Zika virus to fetal harm. The latest article on the BBC suggests that research points to strong links between the Zika virus and fetal harm, but it is not yet entirely conclusive. More research and studies will sur...

Varicose veins are a hassle. The picture on the upper right was taken of a 34 year old woman, at 38 weeks pregnant. She sent us this photo of her varicose veins that seemed to appear during pregnancy. The picture on the bottom right is the same woman, taken a week after she delivered. The veins have largely gone away. Pregnancy Can Cause Varicose Veins Pregnant moms often notice the appearance of varicose veins for the first time. These veins are at their worst during the pregnancy, and as the picture shows the delivery of the baby eases off the vascular pressure in the post partum period of time when the dramatic cardiovascular changes of pregnancy begin to resolve. Varicose and spider veins in pregnancy will shrink post partum, but some will not resolve and perhaps benefit from therapy. The reasons for the appearance of varicosities are complex. Natural twists and turns of veins, veins that carry additional blood flow, slowed flow through blood vessels, poor valves w...