by Kristi | Aug 19, 2014 | Ob-Gyn, Pregnancy |
The lost mucus plug. You’ve read about it in a book about what to expect during your pregnancy. You’ve heard it mentioned in a few movies. You know a woman that had her baby an hour after the plug fell out. So, you’re diligent and you keep close watch for the passage of your mucus plug. What it I told you that there is no such thing as a Mucus Plug? More precisely, the phrase Mucus Plug is entirely unhelpful. And if I ruled the world, it would be retired or revamped. Here’s why. “Mucus Plug” may have originally been intended to be a description of a common phenomenon in pregnancy, but it has now morphed into a term that is misused, overused, confusing, anxiety provoking and frankly misleading. If you’ve never heard of a mucus plug before, it’s the phrase used to describe a collection of thick mucus that accumulates in the cervix and lower uterus during pregnancy, and may come out vaginally within a few hours to several weeks before delivery. When is makes its appearance, it may mean you are going into labor in 5 minutes or it may mean that you are going to deliver your baby in 2 months. As an isolated symptom, it’s as meaningless as seeing mucus when you blow your nose. But, it freaks you out if you don’t know to expect it and if you’ve read somewhere that it is a harbinger for labor. So, if every pregnant woman, every person who has heard of the phrase mucus plug and every well meaning grandma, friend, co-worker, and random...
by Kristi | Aug 15, 2014 | Ob-Gyn |
It’s frustrating, isn’t it? If you are like me, after an appointment with your doctor, that’s when all the good questions come to mind. Or, some nagging pain, strange symptom or weird pregnancy related concern surfaces and as luck has it, you are out of town, it’s 3 am, it’s the weekend and/or you are swamped and don’t have time for a doctor’s appointment. These after hours, Ob-Gyn concerns are inconvenient recipes for stress that send us to the internet for answers. And when you need it most, it’s amazing how difficult it is to find helpful health information. Online, there’s so much information, it can be overwhelming to sift through it all. There’s also so much bad information. And there’s tremendous stress in trying to decipher what is pertinent. You google, you bing, you web-md and you scour the mayo clinic site. Forums, support groups, research study abstracts, magazine articles and class action law suit links– you try to take them all in and only pay attention to the information that is really applicable and reliable. Then an hour or two later you may or may not have found your answer. And quickly that rash and freckle turn into cancer, your headache is surely a brain tumor and the numb spot on your hand becomes a subtle sign of a stroke or multiple sclerosis. As creator of the company Health Tap, Ron Gutman says, “On the internet, every headache becomes a brain tumor in four clicks or less,” (see the Wired article here). You probably don’t want to call the doctor or make another appointment for something you...
I am an Ob/Gyn and I love helping people really, truly understand their bodies and live healthy lives. I believe true wellness comes from more than just a pill. When not working I love to mountain bike, cook, learn to sew, and go on adventures with my husband and our daughter.