Becoming pregnant after 35 comes with some derogatory labels: geriatric pregnancy, advanced maternal age, older mom (wait, what?!) It’s hard to escape the warnings about your pregnancy being at “high risk” for complications, such as birth defects, high blood pressure, and diabetes just because you passed a certain age bracket. But does your age actually […]

Our modern bodies continue to maintain a nocturnal birth rhythm. But are we messing with the natural rhythm by basking in unnatural light in the middle of labor? Why night-time labor could stall when you reach the hospital and what you can do about it.

Vitamin D—The magical vitamin that our body makes when we bask in the sunshine. In an ideal world, every pregnant woman would soak up vitamin D by relaxing her nine months away somewhere tropical and warm. But if you can’t pass your pregnancy at the beach and, like most of us, only manage to squeeze […]

The Benefits of Amniocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling Tara was a young mom-to-be with two healthy young children. Now, pregnant with her third child, she had the usual pregnancy worries: Was her baby growing well? Would she deliver early? Then, at 28 weeks along, an ultrasound revealed her baby’s head circumference was too small. The […]

There is one simple difference between Braxton Hicks and labor contractions: the end result. Have a baby?  Those were labor contractions. No baby?  Braxton Hicks. Ok, that’s not very helpful if you are trying to tell the two apart without a crystal ball on hand. But you can use a few tricks to tell Braxton […]

Many women shy away from amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling for fear of miscarriage—but this risk of amniocentesis causing miscarriage has been widely overblown and the evidence is outdated.

Both of my daughters arrived “late” according to the dates in my charts. Both girls seemed to mock the very concept of a “Due Date”. The little one, especially – she showed up a mere 30 minutes before my scheduled induction, 11 days after the day she was clinically expected to arrive. I am not […]

Finding happiness and appreciating the process of pregnancy can feel like one more to-do on an ever growing list. But it’s not hard to do if you know where to look. Here are 65 simple ways to find your happy place.

Non-invasive prenatal testing can revolutionize how we screen for genetic disorders. So why do we restrict the recommendation for it? A look at NIPT vs. first trimester screening.

Roughly 2 out of 3 laboring women in the U.S. will get an epidural. As a highly effective form of pain relief during labor, it’s no wonder that the epidural is enormously popular. But along with the epidural, comes the controversy.  And at the heart of the controversy, the idea that epidurals raise the chances […]

If February is your "Due Month", you can count on one day to be the most likely birth date - Feb 14th. What the science says about Valentine's Day babies.

Doctors often recommend waiting at least 3 months after a miscarriage. But there’s no compelling evidence that waiting improves your chances of conceiving.