Results tagged “pregnancy”

A night of dancing at a Halloween party turned into a trip to the hospital for Susie Medina this weekend. She and her husband thought it was a urinary problem related to a recent gastric bypass surgery. Boy, were they ever wrong... and surprised.

Since 1991, California's teen birth rate has dropped by 48 percent, according to the California Department of Public Health today: "From 1997 to 2007, birth rates decreased among both younger and older teens. The birth rate among 18 and 19-year-olds dropped from 85.5 per 1,000 in 1997 to 64.3 in 2007. The birth rate among teens ages 15-17 decreased from 33.8 per 1,000 in 1997 to 19.9 in 2007." All told, 53,393 babies were born to teen mothers, aged 15 to 19, in 2007, which is the most recent data available from the state. That still seems like a lot, but a downward trend is a good thing.

Seeing a pattern here? Fertility doctor Michael Kamrava apparently has another patient--this time a 49-year-old woman five months into her pregnancy--who is at USC Medical Center with her unborn quadruplets. "Several sources told The Times that Dr. Michael Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos made from younger donor eggs," the LA Times found.

Yesterday, 33-year-old unemployed graduate student Nadya Suleman broke her silence and sat down for an interview with the Today Show about her choice to have 14 children via in vitro fertilization, including the octuplets born to her on January 26th in Bellflower. While the interview raised the issue of her life-long desire to be a mother to many children, as well as her struggle with depression, it still could not address some of the very pressing issues of medical ethics raised in the aftermath of her octuplets' birth.

When was the last time you had someone give your lady parts a good once-over? And by “someone,” I mean an individual with a medical degree from an accredited university. That’s right; it’s time for us ladies of Los Angeles to schedule our yearly gynecological appointment, affectionately known as “the Annual”.

Today's "Only in LA" column in the Times checks in with the restaurant to see if the myth still holds. Steve Harvey explains, "The trend supposedly began after some very pregnant women from a birthing class dined there -- and then went into labor. All had ordered the romaine and watercress salad. One theory held that the balsamic vinegar dressing triggered contractions of the uterus." A quick call to Caioti confirmed that ladies looking to get their buns out of their ovens still order up what's called simply "The Salad." They are even offered a journal kept by the restaurant so they can record their visit, and those for whom the so-called miraculous salad works sometimes send in photos of their newborn.

My day job involves a lot to do with children's health and so I get to hear, discuss and learn a lot about medical advances, especially in the form of children's health. A prominent ob/gyn at Cedars passed along a very interesting medical advance I had never heard of before. Our country is as divided as ever on stem cell research and yet many in the medical community strongly support this research to help identify the strains that cause diseases and how to catch them earlier or cure them altogether. Currently stem cell research is being used to treat nearly 70 diseases, with countless more ahead of us in the future.