According to the press release,

Here’s a Self-Advocacy Book that Can Change Your Life!

Before the Scalpel: What Everyone Should Know about Anesthesia,
a new book from Tell Me Press.

The decision has been made: you are going to have surgery. You’ve met with your surgeon. You have a good idea what will happen during the operation. But how much do you know about the anesthesia?

Did you know, by the age of 50 most people have had at least 3 encounters with some form of anesthesia? Before you or a loved one undergoes another surgery or medical procedure, this book will enable you to empower yourself and learn the basic questions to ask about anesthesia.

Author Panchali Dhar, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Anesthesiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College and is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology. She has demystified the process and terms associated with anesthesia and arranged the information in an easy to understand topic-by-topic sourcebook. Dr. Dhar takes you into the complicated, fascinating, cutting-edge world of anesthesia.

In Before the Scalpel: What Everyone Should Know about Anesthesia, Dr. Dhar explores such real-life topics as:

* Pain-relief options during Labor and Delivery
* Facts to know before deciding on Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
* Why children are not just "small adults" when it comes to anesthesia
* How obesity adds risk to surgery and anesthesia
* The common fear of awareness during anesthesia

In Before the Scalpel: What Everyone Should Know about Anesthesia, Dr. Dhar walks readers through the various steps that ensure a safe and pain-free experience during medical procedures that may require or benefit from anesthesia. Before the Scalpel is formatted and illustrated for quick and easy reference in an interactive manner. This is a take-along-book to the doctor’s office, with outlines and room to make notations. Each chapter is a mini crash course for any person who is concerned about the anesthesia aspect of surgery.

If you’d like to learn more about the book, you can go to Tell Me, the publisher. If you buy the book, I’d love it if you could give us your opinion.

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Tags: : pregnancy blog, cesarean section, epidural, anesthesia

Post from: Blisstree

Book: Before the Scalpel: What Everyone Should Know about Anesthesia

While VBACs do have risks, including rupture of the uterine walls, many women do deliver vaginally after a C-section and don’t have any complications. The problem, however, lies in how to tell in advance who may be at higher risk if they have a VBAC.

A study presented on January 30th at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) showed how physicians could use an ultrasound (sonagram) to measure how thick the lower uterine segment is. With this measurement, they would be able to see who may be at higher risk of a uterine rupture while is labor.

The small study of 236 women involved measuring the uterine thickness when the women were between 35 and 38 weeks pregnant. During labor, three women had complete uterine rupture and six had scar dehiscence, splitting open of the earlier C-section scar.

You can read more about this study over at DocGuide.com: Sonogram Able to Predict Uterine Rupture Risk for Women Attempting VBAC

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Tags: pregnancy blog, VBAC, vaginal delivery after cesarean, uterine rupture, cesearean sections, c-sections

Post from: Blisstree

Ultrasound may be able to predict who can have VBAC and who shouldn’t

Today, she discusses vaginal breech births and the importance of your midwife knowing about the procedures. She’s also posted a video of a woman delivering a baby who is in a breech position.

I’ve never seen a vaginal breech birth. Very interesting. Thanks to Lisa for making this available.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, midwife, vaginal breech birth, cesarean section, VBAC

Post from: Blisstree

Breech birth video

Obesity is often in the news too because of issues like seating. In Canada, airlines have been ordered to provide two seats for the price of one for obese people who can’t fit in regulation sized seats. And now, it seems that this issue is affecting hospitals.

In the United Kingdom, several leading hospitals have had to widen the doors to their maternity centers to make it easier for obese mothers to get in and out. According to an article in The Daily Mail, 30 out of 33 birthing centers in London have had to make this adjustment. Not only are they widening the doors, they have the expense of buying new beds that can accommodate the weight.

You can read about the issue in this article, Maternity wards forced to widen delivery-room doors for obese mothers.

Maybe the standard will change, with the wider doors being the accepted width as institutions are built and renovated over the next few years.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, obese mothers

Post from: Blisstree

UK hospitals widening labor room doors for obese mothers

After going to the emergency room for the pain, the doctor looked at her x-ray and told her that she wasn’t passing a kidney stone and was, in fact, in labor. She didn’t believe it, certain that he was looking at someone else’s x-ray. Minutes later, the doctor was proven right as delivered a 7 lb 12 oz boy – butt first.

You can read about her story here: MD tells woman: That’s no kidney stone, it’s a baby

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Tags: pregnancy blog, kidney stone

Post from: Blisstree

What’s the difference between a kidney stone and a baby?

But, if you’re still going to do it, at least wait until your 39th week of pregnancy, regardless of your own tight schedule. While we knew that a few weeks can make a big difference in infant health, now it seems that it’s not just weeks, it’s also days that can make a difference.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel hill found, after studying more than 13,000 women who were delivering for a second or more time and were having planned C-sections that were not medically needed. The recommended dates for delivery are not earlier than 39 weeks of pregnancy and the researchers found that babies born at 37 or 38 weeks had more breathing problems, more infections, and had problems with their blood sugar.

Babies born at 38 weeks had double the risk of complications as babies born at 39 weeks. You can read more about the study findings here: C-sections should wait until 39 weeks, study says.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, c sections, cesarean section, planned c sections, non medically needed c sections

Post from: Blisstree

Don’t rush that baby!

Two days before Christmas, Richard Walker Sault was born in California, weighing in at 14 pounds, 2 oz. I wonder if you can call him "little guy" when they’re born that big. Doctors who were delivering baby Richard needed two pairs of hands to remove him from his mother’s uterus.

Source: Baby weighing 14 pounds born in US.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, 14 pound baby

Post from: Blisstree

14 pound newborn. Ouch.

If so, this could be both good and bad.

First the good: Many women want to give birth at home. A home birth gives them more control over the natural process and they feel it’s a better experience all around.

Now the bad: Some women, due to difficulties or health issues, shouldn’t be giving birth at home without putting themselves or their baby at risk.

According to this Salt Lake City Tribune article, More moms choose to give birth at home, some women and their partners are considering the thousands of dollars for a hospital to be a luxury and they’re opting for less expensive, midwife-led labor and deliveries.

While home births may be the right thing, money shouldn’t be the deciding factor. To me, there’s something wrong with that picture.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, home births, midwives, midwife, no health insurance

Post from: Blisstree

No health insurance = more home births

You can learn about two French male midwives from the 17th century, Jacques Guillemeau and Francois Mauriceau, and how they felt about midwifery and female midwives. If you leave them a comment, tell them I sent you!

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Tags: pregnancy blog, male midwives, midwifery, midwives

Post from: Blisstree

More about male midwives in history

                                              Help My Hurt:

                                  Happy Anniversary Help My Hurt!

As women, we tend to blame ourselves for a lot of things that aren’t even in our control. I’ve heard many women do this if their labor doesn’t progress – move quickly enough – especially if they end up having to have a Cesarean section (C-section) as a result.

So, why do some women have this problem?

First, the idea of labor dystocia, or failure to progress, is determined on how quickly it’s expected for a woman to take to dilate and deliver the baby. This does vary depending on if you’ve already had a baby or not as second and subsequent deliveries are usually (not always) quicker than the first.

The failure to progress isn’t measured by the overall length of the labor, but how long it takes to dilate per hour *and* how long it takes for the baby to come forward, or descend and get well placed to be born. For example, the rule of thumb for a woman having a second child is she should dilate about 1.5 cm per hour, while first time moms are a bit slower at 1.2 cm per hour. The usual rate for the descent is about 2 cm per hour.

It’s not unheard of for a woman’s labor to be "perfect" for the first few hours and then for the labor to stop progressing and this can be extremely discouraging and frustrating for the woman.

Why a C-section then?

Labor is hard work not only for the mom, but also the baby. Every time you have a contraction, an incredible amount of force is being placed on the baby – this is why the fetal heart is monitored so closely. The medical personnel want to be sure that the baby is able to tolerate the birth process.

If your labor doesn’t progress, this can become too stressful on the baby and the heart rate may begin to drop, putting the baby in danger. At this point, the doctor’s main concern is to get the baby out as fast as possible, and that is with a C-section.

What causes labor dystocia?

For many women, it just happens, but there are a few risk factors too:

• obesity – obese women may have more difficulty progressing through labor
• baby not in the right presentation, positioned in the best way for birth
• anxiety – maternal anxiety can cause the body to slow down
• dehydration – one reason IVs are used is to be sure that mom stays hydrated
• inefficient contractions
• large baby
• pregnancy past 41 weeks
• epidurals – for some women, epidurals slow down progress, but for others, they may speed it up

What can be done?

In many cases, the obstetrician will recommend oxytocin, a medication that brings on or spurs on labor. This may work, but if not, often the only option for a safe delivery is to intervene with a C-section.

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Tags: pregnancy blog, labor and delivery, labor dystocia, failure to progress, c sections, cesarean sections, epidurals

Post from: Blisstree

Labor dystocia – failure to progress