Woohoo! I was asked to guest post for the “Word of Mom” blog at the What To Expect When You’re Expecting website! At the request of a friend, my article was about what the science shows regarding exercise and pregnancy. Here’s a very brief summary of my findings: Listen your body; it will help you…
I’ve been invited to guest blog at Scientific American today. The article, which is about the c-section rate in the U.S., was an interesting one for me to write. I initially approached it from the perspective that there were too many c-sections in the U.S., and I wanted to dig around and see whether there…
This post is the continuation of last week’s rebuttal of a recent article published on Mothering.com by Jennifer Margulis, entitled “Pregnancy and the Flu Shot.” Margulis’ article continues with another anecdote (calling to mind a quote I love, often attributed to Roger Brinner, which states: “The plural of anecdote is not data”). This time, the…
Mothering magazine, once a monthly printed periodical, is now an Internet-only resource for “attachment” or “gentle” methods of parenting (see this great article from Science of Mom that neatly sums up the problems with parenting-style labels). While I’ve occasionally found some useful nuggets among the articles published at Mothering.com, I’m distressed by the complete failure…
Despite the efforts of researchers and medical practitioners, autism is still only partially understood. Boys are more susceptible than girls by a factor of about four, which may be due to the way that sex hormones interact with a gene called RORA (Sarachana et al), which is one of the many genes implicated in autism…
One of the most fascinating aspects of human breast milk is that the milk literally changes during the course of a nursing relationship. The earliest secretions from the breast — called colostrum — are high in antibodies and protein. Transitional milk comes in a few days post-delivery, and milk changes once again at around two…
This is the second in a two-part series on umbilical cord-related issues. The first article dealt with cord blood banking. One of the criticisms that has been leveled against the typical hospital birthing environment is the “assembly line” approach to delivering a baby. In many cases, obstetricians and obstetric nurses have a time frame in…
You see the ads everywhere — in magazines for expectant mothers, in printed pamphlets at the obstetrician’s office — and they evoke the wonder of life and perfection of a new baby. They’re carefully designed to rev up the protective instinct of any woman with a reproductive inclination and a pulse. The private cord blood…
Nitrates and nitrites are chemically related to one another, and are commonly used as preservatives in a variety of food items. Bacon is perhaps the most notable example, but many packaged, processed meats — including many lunch meats — are among those that contain nitrates and nitrites. Even “natural” lunch meats, which don’t list nitrates…
I wanted to follow up last week’s post on DHA supplementation with a look into the research on fish oil supplementation, since while fish oil is a common source of supplemental DHA, there are supplements that contain pure DHA (as opposed to the normal mix of fats present in fish oil). While I concluded that…
