Cesarean deliveries are over-used in California, and reducing the number of surgical births would save health-care dollars and protect women's health. Those are the conclusions …
Category: Pregnancy
Study reports more pregnant women taking medications
I was pretty much a purist when it came to my pregnancy. I avoided caffeine and off-limit cheeses, and I swapped my regular shampoo with …
Program focuses on the treatment of placental disorders
In today's Inside Stanford Medicine, my colleague Erin Digitale takes a look at a new Lucile Packard Children's Hospital program for pregnant women with placental …
Stanford research advances Nobel-winning IVF work
When I woke up automatically at 2:30 am this morning, I wasn't surprised. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was scheduled to be announced …
Tensions high in debate over safety of home births
Home birth has been much in the news this summer, especially following the July publication of a study concluding the practice triples the risk of …
New test predicts the success of IVF treatment
More than 7 million American women have fertility problems, according to CDC figures. A small number of these women turn to in vitro fertilization to …
The double-edged sword of older motherhood
A recent Pew Research Center report showed that today's moms are older than their counterparts from two decades ago, and writer Rachel Lehmann-Haupt has a …
Stanford sociologists gathering info on contraception use
In light of statistics showing that nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, a team of Stanford sociologists is gathering more …
How a child’s cells may affect mother’s long-term health
Scientists are continuing to gain understanding of how cells transmitted from child to mother during pregnancy may influence a woman's health long after delivery. New …
Can old wives' tales help predict baby's gender?
I'm a big fan of pregnancy-related old wives' tales - and a bigger fan of studies that try to determine their validity. I was thrilled …
"Baby brain" no more: Study says pregnancy not linked to memory problems
I've always found the terms "baby brain" and "mommy brain" - used to describe memory and concentration lapses experienced by some pregnant women and new …
New research program to study prescription drug use during pregnancy
In an effort to better understand the effects of prescription medications on women and their unborn children, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers at …
Debunking a labor myth
Last spring, when Stanford researcher Douglas Owens, MD, mentioned to me an upcoming study on the risks of labor induction, I took an immediate (and …
Yes, you're eating for two, but…
I stopped weighing myself about 8 months into my pregnancy (it just became too depressing after awhile), but there is good reason for mothers-to-be to …
Death in birth
With less than a month to go before my delivery date, maternal deaths are probably the last thing I should be reading about. But a …
Helping heal moms' injuries
I've been pregnant twice, and both times (thanks to a pesky autoimmune disease) meant months of extra ultrasounds and screenings and pre- and post-labor appointments …