News Moms Need

If you’re pregnant or hoping to be pregnant soon, you need to choose a health care provider to care for you throughout your pregnancy. One of your options is a midwife.

A certified nurse-midwife is a registered nurse with advanced, specialized training and experience in taking care of pregnant women and delivering babies. Certified nurse-midwives are licensed to provide care before, during and after delivery.

The American College of Nurse Midwives has great information about midwifery on their web site. You will see that they are primary health care providers to women throughout the lifespan. They perform physical exams, prescribe meds including contraception, order lab tests, provide prenatal care, gynecological care, labor and birth care, as well as health education and counseling to women of all ages.

If you are interested in talking to a midwife, the Find a Midwife practice locator is a web-based service that allows you to find midwifery practices in your area. It also supplies you with basic contact information like practice name, address, phone number, e-mail address, web site and a map of the area.

You have several options for a healthcare provider: obstetrician (OB); family practice doctor; maternal-fetal medicine specialist; and certified nurse-midwife. Look into each one to find out who works best for you.

Our guest post today is from Mary Lavan, Associate Director of Nursing Education and Health Promotion at the March of Dimes.

It’s National Nurses Week and March of Dimes would like to thank all of the nurses who work so hard to improve the care of moms and babies.

It’s a special week to reflect on the critical work nurses do every day to help advance the mission of the March of Dimes. Nurses are the ones, afterall, who hold moms and babies in their hands. They are health care providers, educators, researchers, advisors and friends. Nurses educate women before they are pregnant about the importance of preconception care and taking folic acid. They provide safe care during labor and care for babies born too early.

Sometimes it’s an emergency room nurse who holds a pregnant woman’s hand during a preterm labor scare, or a pediatric nurse who screens a new mother for postpartum depression. Whatever the situation, nurses play an integral role in helping us get closer to achieving our mission: a day when every baby has a healthy start in life. For that, March of Dimes is forever grateful.
 
As a way of saying thank you for all that nurses do, March of Dimes developed an extensive continuing nursing education program to help nurses integrate the latest clinical and scientific advances into the care of their patients. March of Dimes is also proud to award several scholarships annually to nurses enrolled in graduate maternal-child health nursing programs.

For information about March of Dimes nursing program, visit marchofdimes.com/nursing or contact Mary Lavan at mlavan@marchofdimes.com

Getting early and regular prenatal care is very important for having a healthy pregnancy and baby. Choosing the right care provider is your first step, but how do you know who to choose? Should it be an obstetrician, a family practice doctor, a certified nurse-midwife or a maternal-fetal medicine specialist? Here’s a link to info on who’s who in the profession.

It helps a lot to choose a health care provider who makes you feel comfortable and who listens to you. Questions you may want to consider include:

- Does the provider have a good reputation?
- Does the provider listen to you and take the time to explain things clearly and thoroughly?
- Are you comfortable with the gender and age of the provider?
- Does the provider make your partner feel comfortable, too?
- Is the office staff pleasant and respectful?
- Is the location of the office convenient? Do the hours fit your schedule?
- What hospital is the provider affiliated with? Does the hospital have a good reputation? Is its location convenient?
- Is the provider in a solo, group or collaborative practice?
- Will you always be seen by the same provider during your office appointments?
- Who covers for the provider when he or she is unavailable?
- Who handles phone calls during office hours? Does the provider charge for phone consultations? How are calls and emergencies handled after hours?
- Does your insurance cover this health care provider?

Remember, if you find that you are partway through your pregnancy and are not happy with your care, you are perfectly within your rights to look for another provider and make a change.  Do what is best for you.

You’re pregnant and getting regular prenatal care – great! You’re all set. So how do you find a good health care provider for your baby once she or he has arrived? This provider could be a pediatrician, a family physician or another kind of health care provider.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says parents should ask the following questions when choosing a baby’s pediatrician, but this list can apply to any health care provider:
• Does the doctor accept your insurance? What are the office hours? Is the doctor taking new patients?
• How often should a baby see the doctor during the first year?
• Which hospital does the doctor use? What is the doctor’s preferred method of contact?
• How much are office visits, immunizations and other care costs?
• Is after-hours care available when your child is sick or when you have questions?

Make sure you feel comfortable talking to him or her. Also make sure their office is in a place that you can get to easily.  Try to decide on and meet with a provider before your baby is born.

Pediatric growth charts are a standard part of any checkup.  They have been used by health care providers and parents to track the growth of infants, children, and adolescents in the United States since 1977. They show us how kids are growing compared with other kids of the same age and sex. They also show a pattern of height and weight gain over time, and whether they’re developing proportionately. Girls and boys are measured on different growth charts because they grow in different patterns and at different rates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has growth charts available on their website. They are not meant to be used as the only diagnostic tool for evaluating a childs’ health. Instead, growth charts are intended to help form an overall impression. If you have any questions about your child’s growth  (or growth charts) speak to your health care provider.

Click here to view Birth to 36 months: Boys Length-for-age and Weight-for-age percentiles

Click here to view Birth to 36 months: Girls Length-for-age and Weight-for-age percentiles

Towards the end of my pregnancy my husband and I emailed our siblings and close friends for recommendations to pediatricians.  We asked them all a ton of questions, but still needed to call a couple of doctor’s offices for additional information. Things that were important to us included:

First and foremost, did this doctor accept our insurance?
Was the doctor a board certified pediatrician?
What hospital was the doctor affiliated with?
Was the doctor nice and well-liked?
Was he/she supportive of breastfeeding?
Was it easy to get an appointment at his/her office?
Were the staff and the office itself pleasant?
Did they have well-baby office hours?
Was the office close to our house?
How were calls and emergencies handled after hours?

With the exception of the occasional lengthy wait in the waiting room, we’re having a good experience with the doctor that we picked for our daughter. He is very friendly and throughout the visit asks, “so, what questions do you have?” I never feel rushed. I trust him. I actually enjoy taking her for her check-ups. This was not apart of the criteria for a selecting a pediatrician, but he happens to wear funny ties and the baby loves to stare and grab at them. So we think she likes him, too : )

How did you find your baby’s doctor?

Happy Friday! See you next week.

You may have heard us say it before, but it’s worth saying it again – having a healthy baby starts BEFORE pregnancy! There are so many factors about mom’s health before and during pregnancy that affect how healthy her baby will be. That’s why it’s important for all women to take care of themselves and live a healthy lifestyle. This is especially true for women living with diabetes.

The USA Today published an article last week on this very topic. In fact, nearly 9 out of 100 women in the United States have diabetes. But, about 3 out of those 9 don’t know it. Managing diabetes before pregnancy (often called “preexisting diabetes”) is important to the health of both mom and baby. This is also true for women who develop gestational diabetes (when diabetes develops during pregnancy). If too much glucose (sugar) is in a woman’s blood during early pregnancy, there’s a chance that this can cause birth defects. In later pregnancy, too much glucose could lead to a baby that is too large, born prematurely, born via c-section or have other life-threatening situations.

But there is good news! By learning how to manage your diabetes before and during pregnancy, you can increase the chances of having a healthy pregnancy and baby. Here’s a few things you can do right now:
• Visit your health provider regularly before and during pregnancy
• Take a multivitamin with at least 400 micrograms of folic acid
• Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet
• With your health provider’s OK, be active and exercise
• Learn more about managing pre-existing diabetes and gestational diabetes.

I sit there on the examining table. The doctor writes the prescription for me to have it filled at my pharmacy. Familiar scene, right?

I have never once, in my entire life, asked, “What’s this gonna cost? Is there a way to keep the cost down and still treat what I have?” Apparently, I’m not alone.

According to a recent poll by Consumers Union (the folks that produce Consumer Reports), most patients never talk about price when they get a prescription from a health care provider.

Consumer’s Union encourages us to have a “heart-to-heart” with our provider when we’re worried about cost. Often, other good, less expensive choices are available.

For instance, generic drugs contain the same active ingredients as a brand-name drug, but they cost less. A generic drug is available only after the original drug’s patent has expired.

In these hard times, some people are cutting back on meds because they’re worried about costs. But this isn’t wise; you could seriously harm your health. Instead, ask your provider if there are less expensive choices.

What are you and your family doing to deal with the high costs of prescriptions and medical care?

There’s an interesting discussion taking place on the New York Times Well column. The piece is about how patients often evaluate their health provider based on his “bedside manner” (how caring, understanding, and helpful she is), and not so much on the provider’s actual medical skills.

The author of the article, Dr. Pauline Chen, thinks patients might be putting too much trust in their health provider. She is concerned that patients may be assuming the provider has the right medical qualifications to treat a patient. Dr. Chen suggests that patients evaluate their provider on additional factors, like where they received their training, if they’re board certified or a member of a medical association, and their safety record.

When I choose an OB/GYN, I try to get as much information about her as possible before making my appointment, including her medical qualifications. But this isn’t always easy. During my appointment, I pay close attention to how she treats me. I then make my decision of either staying with her, or looking for someone else.

How do you all choose your health provider?

Are you only your uterus? Some women believe health care providers focus mostly on a woman’s ability to get pregnant and pay less attention to other aspects of her health. That’s been the conversation at the New York Times blog Well.

What’s been your experience? Does your health care provider treat you as a whole person? Does he or she listen to you and your concerns?

Meanwhile, if you are pregnant, check out the March of Dimes article Choosing a Prenatal Care Provider. Find someone who can take care of all of you.

Image: emmedibi, Flickr