Birth, Babies, and Beyond

Pregnancy, birth, and parenting

by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.

Drugging Fertility Patients

Any woman who has gone through fertility treatments knows that one of the toughest challenges (besides desperately wanting a baby and knowing all too well that these costly treatments do not guarantee success) is dealing with the fertility drugs. I mean the side effects, the hassle of injecting yourself with the stuff, and the expense. Read More

Once Popular Pregnancy Drug Ups the Odds of Breast Cancer Among Daughters

A new study validates what hundreds of women have suspected all along--that a hugely popular drug taken by millions of pregnant women decades ago--triggered not only gynecological problems but also increases the risk of breast cancer. Read More

Scent-sational Smells

Last week, I wrote a piece for Slate trashing the notion of human pheromones. Pheromones are odor signals transmitted from one member of a species that either seduce another member or alter its hormones. Read More

The Truth About Alzheimer's Prevention

Last night, I watched Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove--his 1964 satiric film about the nuclear scare--and one line reminded me about all the stuff you read about Alzheimer's prevention. An Army general explains why he only drinks distilled water, rain water or grain alcohol. You see, he explains to a colleague, he can't drink anything with regular water because of the fluoride. Read More

The Meaning of 21st Century Motherhood

The other day my 15-year-old daughter, Martha, told me that she's definitely going to be the kind of mom who has a career too. She's not sure exactly sure what sort of profession. But I'm fairly certain that she is certain that somehow she'll have the mom-work thing all figured out. Good for her. Read More

Are Part-Time Doctors Bad for Medicine's Health?

Ironically, I missed Dr. Karen Sibert's provocative opinion piece when it first hit the New York Times website last week because I was busy with my four kids. (I'm in that crunch time when school ends and summer activities haven't started yet.) Her piece calls for anyone going into medicine to work full-time or else find another job. Read More

Autism and Teens: An Important New Film Spotlights Harsh Realities

Anyone who is raising teenagers or who has ever been one knows the journey from kid to grown-up is not always smooth sailing. Some of us drift off course now and then. Others face some turbulence. For parents of autistic children, the teen years are exponentially stormier. Read More

Gross National Happiness--Should We Start Tallying Our GNH?

You know what makes me happy? Just knowing that someone cares whether I am or not. I'm not talking lasting happiness, or deep-down satisfaction, just a pick-me-up sort of thing. So when I read that Bhutan, the tiny country landlocked between China and India, tallies a Gross National Happiness index, I felt cheerier for the people there and figured they must feel pretty good too. Read More

A Woman's Journey from Conservative Christianity to Lesbian Rabbi

Some of us know from day one what we want to be when we grow up, where we will live, how we will raise our kids. We've got it all mapped out. Most of us think we know but life gets in the way. Our grown-up selves are very different from what we once imagined. Read More

Eating Disorder: What Is Recovery?

Do people with eating disorders ever truly recover? I mean, doctors can point to patients who are maintaining an acceptable weight (thin but not too skinny) and to those who no longer binge. But what do these statistics really say about how these men and women are coping? Read More

DES: Remembering A Tragic Chapter in American Childbirth

Forty years ago today, on April 22, 1971, a scientific study shocked the nation by showing that DES, a popular pregnancy drug, had killer side effects. Some say the drug and the aftermath helped launch the women's health movement. It changed the nature of the patient-gynecologist relationship forever, crystallizing and politicizing anger brewing among American women. Read More

Poops and Other Indignities of Motherhood

Somehow, I know this complaining mom really loved every bit of motherhood, even before I got to her punchline: “It’s not glamorous, but we love it.” Julie Kennon, who calls herself Mama Drama on her blog, www.duddle.net really made me feel good about myself and about herself when she wri Read More

Donor Kids In Search of Medical History

Thank you Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society, for shining a light on an issue that has been in the shadows or too many years. In her blog subtitled, "donor kids are growing up and speaking out," she writes about the importance of donor-conceived children having access to information about their sperm source. Read More

The School Told My Daughter She Has a Penis!

I didn't know whether to laugh or get infuriated when my 10-year-old daughter and her friend came home from school last week, gleefully regaling the silly things their sex education experts told them. Read More

A Push to Reduce Birth Inductions

We've certainly come along way when it comes to saving mothers and babies during childbirth. But we still have a lot to learn. Read More

Birth: Take Two: Camera Rolling

The birth buzz among newspapers lately is all about a few hospitals banning videos in the delivery room. The debate, of course, has nothing to do with safety but about doctors’ fear of lawsuits versus a woman’s right to choose. (choose video over stills, that is.) Read More

The Dirt on Dirt

In an interview with NPR, Sharyn Clough, a philosopher of science, talks about why dirt is good for our kids. She incorporates her philosophical theories to defend a notion that's been bantered about for years. Read More

Hypnotic Births

The December 9 issue of The Wall Street Journal covers the newish fad of hypnobirthing--basically hypnotizing yourself so you can imagine that delivering a baby is not so painful after all. Or perhaps you can visualize yourself sunbathing in the Caribbean rather than spread eagle on a delivery table. Sounds silly? Read More

My girls, oops I mean my breasts

CNN's text for a piece about a new kind of breast cancer reconstruction surgery read: "Cancer Survivor Gets Her Girls Back." (My italics). Yup, you saw that correctly. I think the patient called them her girls and was referring to her own breast. But still.

We have evolved to the point of being able to say and write the word "vagina," can't we just call breasts breasts? Read More

The Secret to Long Life. Or maybe not

As I read Jane Brody's uplifting New York Times piece about centenarian's-replete with lifestyle choices that will make you live longer-I couldn't help but think of friends who succumbed to diseases way too prematurely. Read More

Pregnancy Drinks versus Pregnancy Drunks

There is a difference between a woman who has a glass of wine during pregnancy and a woman who is chronically getting drunk during pregnancy Read More

A Special Breed of Doctors for Very Ill Children

The other day, I was reading a poem by Dr. Wynne Morrison that expressed her hectic life trying to take care of patients without ignoring her own children's needs. Sometimes that meant flipping pancakes while thinking about the right drugs for a very sick child at the hospital. I'm ruining her beautiful prose, but any working mom can relate to the sentiment. Read More

What do Chimp Sperm have that Real Men Lack?

My friend’s husband threw his back out while providing a sperm sample in the midst of their fertility treatment. He got stuck in the tiny masturbating room, hunched over, sample in hand, screaming for a nurse. (Or really anyone to get him out.) He ended up in one hospital bed getting his back straightened, and she, in another, getting his sperm. Read More

Fertility Formula

Anyone who has gone through in vitro fertilization (IVF), knows that the most painful part--aside from the bill--is not knowing whether it will work. If you only knew if you'd get a baby at the end of this emotionally trying ordeal, the journey would be so much easier. Now, a group of scientists say they have a formula that can predict your odds of success. Read More

Is There an Age Minimum to Depression?

When toddlers are sad, we take it for granted they'll bounce back quickly. It may feel like a lifetime, but chances are their screaming fits whither with the help of a lollypop, kind words, or a cuddly pet. But some kids just can't be re-directed, no matter how much we bribe them or trick them into thinking happier thoughts. Read More

A Push to Encourage Vaginal Births After C-Sections

In 1933, when the rate of cesarean sections in New York City hit 2.2 percent, public health experts were appalled. They declared an epidemic of C-sections that needed to be staunched. Nowadays, doctors think they're doing a good job if fewer than one in three women giving birth in hospitals has a surgical delivery. One in three. I mean, what's going on here? Read More

Teens' Poor Contraceptive Choice: Bad Timing

With all of our teens talking so freely about sex and seemingly with a sophisticated attitude about it all, it was shocking to read the results of a new study that found about 17 percent of more than 2,500 teens surveyed said they use the rhythm method for birth control. Wasn't that method proven a failure decades before they were born? Read More

Controlling the Uncontrollable

Upwards of 10 percent of school age children have had, at some time or another, sporadic, involuntary movements, such as eye-blinking, head-jerking or throat-clearing, to name a few. These so-called tics are not dangerous, and do not endure overtime in most in cases. A smaller percentage of these children will go onto have chronic motor tics. Read More

Coaching Teens in Life Lessons

When it comes to outside help these days, it seems as if there are coaches and tutors to guide our children through every walk of life. So I was more than a bit skeptical when I heard from Tami Walsh, who launched a life-coaching business called Teenwisdom directed towards teenage girls. Read More

Breastmilk-Cheese: A Culinary Delight or Disgust?

I breastfed my four children and I like to experiment in the kitchen but I never thought about combining my two hobbies. Last week, New York City chef Daniel Angerer curdled his wife’s breast milk and has since had private tastings with New York City food critics. Read More