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Affordable Prenatal Fitness For Pregnant Women

Low cost, prenatal fitness classes. What a progressive thought. The New York City Prenatal Fitness Initiative is a community model that should be replicated on a national scale. A nurse midwife, Marilinda Pascoe and Andrea Bachrach Mata, an aquatic fitness instructor founded a program that offers prenatal water exercise and yoga to low-income pregnant women in North Manhattan and the Bronx at an affordable cost. For 7 weeks, pregnant women will be able to do light aerobics, swim, dance, gentle stretching and exercise for a total cost of $60.00 in a community pool. Not only will these women have fun by releasing endorphins (substances released by the brain that make you feel happy) but they will also be reducing their risks of developing gestational diabetes, obesity and other potential complications. Three weeks ago the program sponsored a community walk and invited pregnant women to participate. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

New Study About Stillbirths Suggests A Possible Screening Test

One of the most dreaded complications in obstetrics is a stillbirth that is defined as the absence of life upon delivery of the baby. There are approximately 3million stillbirths that occur each year globally and one-half million in the U.S. In developing countries, the most common reasons of stillbirths were prolonged labor, pre-eclampsia and infections whereas in the U.S., the most common causes are abnormal genes, abnormal growth (aka growth restriction) and maternal diseases. According to medical studies, unexplained fetal loss is the most common reason for stillbirths that occur after 28 weeks. Risk factors for stillbirth include women who have infections, abnormal chromosomes, genetic disorders and umbilical cord complications. Race and socioeconomics also play a role. Black women have twice the risk of having a stillbirth as Caucasian women. Smoking and advanced maternal age also poses an increased risk.

Until recently, there are no screening tests available to see if a woman was carrying a baby at risk for stillbirth. However, a medical study presented at a conference reported that stillbirths can now be predicted using Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Pregnant Female Prisoners Must Remain In Shackles During C-Section Procedures?

“But for the grace of God go I.” My late aunt drilled that value into my six-year old head and it has never left. An article regarding a New York politician recently caught my attention. When New York State enacted a bill to ban the shackling of pregnant prisoners, a New York State Assemblywoman objected. The article goes on to discuss the case of Jeanna M. Graves, who, in 2002 was arrested on a drug charge and began a three year sentence. Graves was pregnant with twins and while in labor, was handcuffed during her entire C. Section. How utterly ridiculous.

Before a C. Section begins, a patient is usually given either an epidural or spinal anesthesia. On rare occasions, she is put to sleep with general anesthesia if the baby must be delivered emergently. On all accounts, the patient’s legs will either be numb from anesthesia or she will be sleeping. Why then does she need shackles? She’s certainly not in a position to run. Although I addressed this issue last August, it needs to be revisited again. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Pregnant Moms: Beware Of Shift Changes In The Hospital

At one time, a hospital would be called a 24-hour institution but now it’s a business. Within this business are shift workers that include nurses, technicians, clerical staff and even hospital employed doctors who are now called hospitalists.  In a teaching hospital resident physicians also work in shifts so the responsibility of patient care is always being transferred from one group of healthcare providers to another. Do they always communicate effectively? Regrettably, “no.”

Sign-outs, handoffs, shift changes, nurses’ report. These are the multiple names for the process where a departing  provider is responsible for letting the arriving provider know what’s going on with the patient.  According to statistics, 80% of medical mistakes occur during shift changes and 50 to 60% of them are preventable. Listed below is an excerpt from The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy that teaches pregnant moms what things should be known during a shift change. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Olympian Impregnated With The Wrong Embryo

Olympic winner and motivational speaker, Jim Stovall once said “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking.” In September 2009, I wrote about a blog about Carolyn Savage, a 40 year old woman with a poor obstetrical history. Savage married her college sweetheart and had an uncomplicated first pregnancy. However, her second child was born prematurely. She had 4 subsequent miscarriages and ten years later she became pregnant through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Because the Savages wanted a large family, they tried IVF again. Unfortunately, Savage was impregnated with the wrong embryo. To their credit, everyone rose to the highest level of integrity. The infertility clinic informed the Savage family as soon as the mistake was discovered and then gave them the option of terminating the pregnancy or continuing it. The Savage family then had to inform the rightful parents of the embryo that were not expecting to have a baby any time soon but was now faced with that dilemma. Savage ultimately delivered the baby and then handed it over to its rightful parent, the Morrell family. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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