February 16th, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in News, Opinion
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In less than six months after I wrote “Seven Reasons Why Pregnancy Becomes a Deadly Affair,” the public outrage is faint and inaudible regarding domestic violence committed against pregnant women. The subject therefore needs to be revisited again.
On a college campus less than 90 minutes away from my home, a 17-year-old woman was kicked and punched in her abdomen for no apparent reason other than that she carried life within her womb. The alleged father of her baby, Devin Nickels, a college student at Florida State University (FSU), was apparently not happy about his new prospective role. He purportedly contacted a high school buddy, Andres Luis Marrero, who now attended the University of Tampa, and asked him to beat his girlfriend until she had a miscarriage for $200.00. Marrero, instead, offered to assault the girl for free.
According to the University of Tampa’s newspaper, The Minaret, Nickels drove his girlfriend to a secluded wooded area near an apartment complex and Marrero allegedly assaulted her despite her pleas that she was pregnant. The woman was treated at a local hospital and her pregnancy was still viable. Hours later, Marrero allegedly wrote about the attack on his Facebook wall describing it as “fun.” He was subsequently arrested for armed kidnapping and aggravated assault on a pregnant woman. His father made a statement that his son was an “outstanding kid all his life” and he had no idea “where this was coming from.” Nickels was also arrested on the FSU campus.
Unfortunately these travesties continue. The Oakland Press reported the story of a 17-year-old Ypsilanti, Michigan high schooler who allegedly stabbed a classmate (with whom he’d had sex) in the back of the head 12 times because she told him she “might be pregnant.” She ultimately had surgery that resulted in an intensive care unit admission. The classmate lived because she “played dead.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
August 22nd, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
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About 15 to 20 percent of women who know they are pregnant will have a miscarriage. The loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks is considered a miscarriage. Many women suffer grief and shock after a miscarriage and fear there is something wrong with them or that they did something to cause it. But the reasons for miscarriage are usually not known. Women are often told to wait “a few months” to get pregnant again to let their bodies recover.
A new study published in the British Medical Journal looked at over 30,000 women who had a miscarriage in their first recorded pregnancy and subsequently became pregnant again. They found that women who conceived again within six months were less likely to have another miscarriage or problem pregnancy. They were even less likely to have a cesarean section, preterm delivery or infant of low birth weight. These women were more likely to have an induced labor.
The researchers wrote: “Women wanting to become pregnant soon after a miscarriage should not be discouraged.” These women had the best reproductive outcomes.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
September 12th, 2009 by Kenneth Trofatter, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Probably one of the most popular series I have written over the past few years is the one on recurrent early pregnancy loss. There is not a week that goes by that I still don’t get inquiries related to that subject, most accompanied by the pain, frustration, sense of loss, and feelings of hopelessness for future fertility. There are several points I always remind readers and patients about whenever I have the opportunity to discuss their concerns: 1) In most cases, the tincture of time alone offers the answer to their prayers; 2) If specific reasons for their losses are found or suspected, these can often be addressed medically and/or surgically; 3) If specific reasons cannot be identified, there are reasonable approaches to ‘empiric therapy’; and, 4) If these approaches fail, the science of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has advanced to the point that it can often overcome most obstacles that stand in the way of fertility.
The other points I always mention in response to the questions of “Why did this happen to me?”, “What did I do wrong to cause this?”, “What can I do to assure that it never happens to me again?, particularly to couples who have had their first or second miscarriage, or a sporadic miscarriage after successful pregnancies, are the following: 1) Miscarriages occur in 15-20% of all conceptions; 2) The MOST COMMON cause of early pregnancy losses are chromosomal abnormalities that occur by chance (except in the case of parental chromosomal rearrangements) and are not under any controllable influences; 3) It is unlikely that anything was “done” to cause the loss, although if there are such potential factors identified, the loss may provide an incentive to modify lifestyle prior to another pregnancy attempt to minimize their risks.
Recently, I received the query below from a woman who has had early pregnancy losses related to documented chromosomal abnormalities. Despite the other problems that have been identified which might contribute to reduced fertility in her case, these probably had no influence on her babies’ chromosomal abnormalities. But, they do give us the opportunity to briefly discuss the well-known observations that certain seemingly “unusual” chromosomal abnormalities (“unusual” in that they rarely or never result in a live born baby) actually contribute to a relatively high percentage of early pregnancy losses. Read more »
This post, Genetic Causes Of Early Pregnancy Loss, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Kenneth Trofatter, M.D., Ph.D..
