December 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips, News
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On a recent Sunday in the bathroom of the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a baby boy made his entrance to life. His mother was approximately 28 weeks and delivered prematurely, however both baby and mother were healthy according to the media. Although the details of the delivery are sketchy, anyone involved in obstetrics can predict what occurred.
The mother might have had a previous history of a urinary tract infection, or complained of back pain. Did her ultrasound reveal a short cervix? Or perhaps she had a history of a previous early delivery. If it was her first pregnancy, did she complain of mild abdominal pressure? Premature labor is one of the most common reasons for birth defects and has a price tag of approximately 26 billion dollars per year. The signs and symptoms of preterm labor Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
November 20th, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
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photo from www.newscientist.com
A recent medical study by Dr. Ira J. Chasnoff of the Children’s Research Triangle asserts that Hispanic women who have assimilated to American culture have a greater risk of having children born with fetal alcohol syndrome. According to Chasnoff, pregnant Hispanic women in San Antonio had the second highest drinking rate of 29 cities in the states that were studied. I find that rather hard to believe based on my twenty-one year history of taking caring of Hispanic pregnant women. I have seen first, second and third generation Hispanic women and never encountered alcoholism among any of them. However, Chasnoff brings up an interesting point about alcohol and pregnancy. There are two schools of thought. According to Good Morning America, there are physicians such as Dr. Jacques Moritz, who think an occasional glass of wine is okay to consume during pregnancy however the U.S. Surgeon General and the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists advocate strict abstinence from alcohol while pregnancy.
According to medical literature, more than one-half of women of childbearing age report drinking alcohol and 1 out of 8 women report binge drinking. Alcohol appears to have negative effects throughout the entire pregnancy, not just during the first-trimester. At present, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
September 21st, 2011 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Opinion
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Just yesterday, I put up a post about the recent birth control pill recall. This recall is a big deal – millions of women are potentially impacted, and the adverse effect – an unplanned pregnancy – is very significant.
I knew women taking these pills would be very worried, and wanted very much to do more than just spit out the press release from the FDA. I wanted to both reassure women and give them information that they could use other than just a link and a phone number. I also needed to figure out how I would be handing the recall in my own practice. So I combined the two and posted what I’ll be telling my patients to do if they find that they are taking a recalled pill pack.
As soon as the post went up, I got worried.
What if the advice I was giving my patients was not what other docs might do for their patients? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
September 5th, 2011 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Research
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Several questionable sources are spreading alarms about the possible dangers of prenatal ultrasound exams (sonograms). An example is Christine Anderson’s article on the ExpertClick website. In the heading, it says she “Never Liked Ultrasound Technology.”
[She] has never been sold on the safety using Ultrasounds for checking on the fetuses of pregnant women, and for the last decade her fears have been confirmed with a series of studies pointing to possible brain damage to the babies from this technology.
Should We Believe Her?
Should we avoid ultrasounds because Anderson never liked them? Should we trust her judgment that her fears have been confirmed by studies? Who is she?
“Dr.” Christine Anderson is a pediatric chiropractor in Hollywood who believes a lot of things that are not supported by science or reason. Her website mission statement includes
We acknowledge the devastating effects of the vertebral subluxation on human health and therefore recognize that the spines of all children need to be checked soon after birth, so they may grow up healthy.
It also states that “drugs interfere… and weaken the mind, body, and spirit.” Anderson is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips
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At some point during a pregnancy, the topic of labor induction might emerge. Inducing labor means that contractions are being started before a patient begins labor naturally or without any external influence. Elective inductions of labor has doubled in the past 20 years according to medical literature. Early term inductions of labor that begin between 37 and 38 weeks have quadrupled from 2 to 8% within the U.S. Inductions are usually done when the risk of maintaining the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother or fetus. However, more and more patients have requested to have an induction of labor based on personal preference. Early elective inductions have recently been criticized because of an association with an increase in fetal and newborn complications as well as an increase in the C. Section rate.
The Bishop Score was developed in the 1960’s by Dr. Edward Bishop as a means of evaluating the cervix to determine if the patient would successfully have a vaginal delivery. Based on Bishop’s research, he determined that women who were pregnant for the first time and women who had an “unfavorable” cervix were Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
On a recent Sunday in the bathroom of the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a baby boy made his entrance to life. His mother was approximately 28 weeks and delivered prematurely, however both baby and mother were healthy according to the media. Although the details of the delivery are sketchy, anyone involved in obstetrics can predict what occurred.
