August 26th, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Opinion
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What would you do if you discovered early in your pregnancy that you were pregnant with a girl when you wanted a boy? Would you terminate the pregnancy? With the advent of a new DNA test that can determine the sex of a fetus at 7 weeks gestation with a simple blood or urine test, fetal sex selection is now possible. However, before you proceed to pop the cork on your bottle of champagne, a word of precaution is warranted. The Chinese and India dilemmas present a global warning regarding the perils of fetal sex selection. Boys now outnumber girls in China and India and competition is fierce regarding finding a wife or a mate. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), by the year 2020, there will be between 30 to 40 million more boys than girls in China and the statistics in India are equally as alarming. In her book, Sobs In The Night, Xinran describes a scene where a baby girl is born and the father cries out, “Useless thing” and then the baby is dropped in a bucket and dies. This “son preference” is what has caused the unusually large amount of U.S. adoptions of baby Chinese girls.
Clinically, the gender of a baby is only important if Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
August 17th, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips
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A nurse recently asked a very important question that bears repeating: What effect does long-term use of pain pills have on pregnant women? She was concerned because of the increase in number of pregnant women who are taking pain pills on a long term basis based on previous surgeries, accidents or a history of chronic pain.
The most common “pain pills” prescribed are opiates which effectively eliminate or reduce pain but have a great tendency to be abused. Opioids are natural and synthetic type drugs that have the characteristics of morphine. It can only be obtained with a prescription and unfortunately physicians contribute to the problem of dependency and abuse through their lack of scrutiny regarding patient requests. My present home state of Florida has the unsavory distinction of being known as the country’s largest pill mill and it was reported that 80 percent of opiates were not dispensed by pharmacists but by physicians who dispense them from their offices. Consequently, the Florida legislators now prohibit physicians from dispensing opiates in their offices with rare exceptions.
Why are opiates or pain killers dangerous for pregnant women? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
August 17th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
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Attention, pregnant women! The foods you eat now might influence your babies’ palates after they are born. New research published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that the fetus actually drinks amniotic fluid in the womb. The amniotic fluid is flavored by the foods the mother has recently eaten and flavors can be transmitted to the amniotic fluid and mother’s milk.
It makes sense that as the baby is developing, memories are being created by a sense of taste. Could what a mother eats influence food preferences and odor preferences for life? Researchers fed babies cereal flavored with carrot juice vs. water. They showed that babies who experienced daily carrots in amniotic fluid or mother’s milk ate more carrot-flavored cereal and made less negative faces when eating it.
Julie Mennella studies taste in infants at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (Philadelphia) and she says Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
August 3rd, 2011 by Happy Hospitalist in Opinion, True Stories
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Childbirth hospital costs these days aren’t cheap. Some studies suggest the cost of raising a child exceeds $200,000, not including education expenses. Most insurance companies charge women of childbearing age more for their insurance because the actuarial tables say so. Mrs Happy and I now have a 3 month old Zachary in our wings. He is a cute little peanut. His two brothers, Marty and Cooper adore him.
Forty-two days after his April 21st, 2011 delivery, we still had not received our explanation of benefits from Blue Cross Blue Shield for the midwife charge. I had previously received a statement from them saying the charge was under review. Perhaps they believed that delivering Zachary was not medically necessary. I can’t explain it.
When I called to ask them why this charge had not been approved, they said they could not give me a reason why my explanation of benefits statement had not been finalized after 42 days. I pressed for more information, but to no avail. I was given no reason other than to say that they had a lot of claims to review. That’s not an acceptable reason to delay a payment of a claim. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
August 3rd, 2011 by KerriSparling in Opinion, True Stories
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When Jeff Hitchcock approached me last year and asked if I would feel comfortable leading the Pregnancy and Diabetes session at Friends for Life, I was honored. But also a little confused. What on earth was I going to tell the session attendees? I couldn’t spout off medical information. I am not a licensed medical professional.
“I’m just a person with diabetes who had a baby. And my pregnancy was a bit of a tangled one, too!” I remember emailing to Jeff, wondering if they’d be better off with a doctor at the helm of that discussion.
He replied within minutes, telling me that was exactly why they wanted me to lead the session. And I grinned, but felt nervous.
Before the little bird joined our family, I did a lot of research about pregnancy with diabetes. Hard facts, statistics, and professional recommendations were available by the fistful. The problem was finding anecdotal information about managing pregnancy and diabetes at the same time. Before Chris and I left for Spain that year, knowing we were ready to try for a baby, I felt prepared. But when we came home and found out I was pregnant, I wanted nothing more than to find a room full of other pregnant women who had diabetes, so I could immerse myself in their support and say, “I have NO CLUE what I’m doing!! HELP!!” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
What would you do if you discovered early in your pregnancy that you were pregnant with a girl when you wanted a boy? Would you terminate the pregnancy? With the advent of a new DNA test that can determine the sex of a fetus at 7 weeks gestation with a simple blood or urine test, fetal sex selection is now possible. However, before you proceed to pop the cork on your bottle of champagne, a word of precaution is warranted. The Chinese and India dilemmas present a global warning regarding the perils of fetal sex selection. Boys now outnumber girls in China and India and competition is fierce regarding finding a wife or a mate. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), by the year 2020, there will be between 30 to 40 million more boys than girls in China and the statistics in India are equally as alarming. In her book, Sobs In The Night, Xinran describes a scene where a baby girl is born and the father cries out, “Useless thing” and then the baby is dropped in a bucket and dies. This “son preference” is what has caused the unusually large amount of U.S. adoptions of baby Chinese girls.
