by Kristi | Dec 19, 2015 | birth stories, Ob-Gyn, Pregnancy |
This week, I heard the best birth plan EVER. But first, let me preface this with my spiel I give every pregnant lady who asks about birth plans or my take on their delivery. I tell them: It’s your body, your baby, your delivery. My job is to keep you both safe and explain everything along the way. You can do whatever you want, as permitted by state law. My one rule is you get an IV placed. You don’t have to use it, you just need to have it in case you hemorrhage or get sick fast and we need it. You can eat, walk, monitor or not, have cervical checks or not, be induced (39+w) or wait for labor, go medication free or get your epidural as soon as you hit the door, you can be in whatever position that suits you, delay cord clamping, have immediate skin to skin, breastfeed, bottle-feed, use a paci, opt for an elective CS if you listen to my rationale for why it can be a bad idea- because it’s your deal. You can have no birth plan or a 10 page birth plan, as long as you know that all good plans can go to shit and the Murphy’s joke is Birth Plan = CS. I will tell you what I recommend and what I don’t and why. We’ll discuss it all as it comes up. If we don’t see eye to eye on something major, we’ll bring in someone else to weigh in. That being said, the best birth plan EVER: “My clients ask me about my birth plan...
by Kristi | Mar 1, 2015 | birth stories, Ob-Gyn, Pregnancy |
Here’s the premier post to this column about birth stories. It details the difficult C-section experience and recovery for a mom who is also a nurse. What follows is the story and then my direct reply to the author. All names of included people have been altered or omitted for privacy reasons. The story: When I responded to the c-section article you asked for my son’s story. It has taken me a while to get it together, but here it is. My husband and I tried for 4 years and had 3 losses. When we found out [this pregnancy] was viable we were over the moon. I had always had an idea of how I wanted delivery to go. I wanted an unmedicated delivery and immediate skin to skin. At 28 weeks I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was very strict with my diet and exercise. I only gained 9 pounds during my pregnancy. At about 30 weeks both my primary OB and the MFM (maternal fetal medicine) doctors started telling me [my baby] was macrosomic. My primary OB started pushing me to do a lung maturity and deliver at 35 weeks. I was determined to keep him in until term. At my 38 week appointment my primary OB told me my baby weighed 4200g. She sat down in front of me and told me an induction would be dangerous. She told me it wasn’t safe for me to stay pregnant. “It would be a real shame if after all you have been through he had a dystocia (baby’s shoulder getting stuck at the time of vaginal...
by Kristi | Feb 18, 2015 | birth stories, Ob-Gyn, Pregnancy |
So, I hear lots of pregnancy and delivery stories. Lots. Some are beautiful. Some are fraught with disappointment. Some are heartbreaking. Some are so intensely inspiring. I’m starting a standing series on the blog where I feature a pregnancy/delivery/postpartum story from you. They will be shared anonymously and only with the explicit permission of the author. If there are any take home lessons or experiences that warrant commentary, I’ll add my two cents with the hope that hearing a little something extra will be helpful. If you would like to share your birth story, send it in to kristiangevineMD at gmail Thank you in advance! Kristi {Due to the volume of stories I currently receive, not every one will be able to be...
by Kristi | Feb 1, 2015 | Pregnancy |
Hi– this is the first part of a series of previews about my big upcoming project. Here’s the scoop: I’m in the thick of building out a (free!) prenatal education program to help women to start their pregnancies off right. In this age of fast access to information, there’s an abundance of misinformation. As an Ob/Gyn, I hear it all from my patients. And I see that it can be really hard to get pregnancy questions answered. Picture this– a newly pregnant lady has a question. Can I sleep on my back? How much coffee can I drink? Is it normal for me to feel these cramps? What are my chances of having a C-section? My coworker’s kid has 5ths disease, do I worry? She texts a friend and goes online to search for an answer because it’s after work, her doctor’s office is closed. An hour later, up to her ears in crazy ass information. She may have found her answer OR she may have found 17 different points of view. By the time she gets ahold of her doctor, the stress and damage have been done. What a waste. There’s absolutely no need for anyone to struggle to get quick, easy access to reliable, modern medical information. We have the freaking internet, email and social media to connect us and we can do better. My project to do better by pregnant women is the Straight-Up Pregnancy Primer. {{Read on or click here for more.}} Once complete, it’ll be a series of 2-3 weeks of emails. The emails will have a short video about a set of pregnancy...
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...
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.