More Teratogens!
We all love Miles Vorkosigan, but we don’t necessarily want to have kids like him. (Except for the wit, charm, and leadership ability, of course.) Here’s how to avoid poisoning your fetus! Teratogens...
View ArticleWhy Does the US have High Infant Mortality?
A brief summary of this paper by economists Alice Chen, Emily Oster, and Heidi Williams. The US has about double the rate of infant mortality (defined as deaths in the first year of life) as other...
View ArticleInfectious Teratogens
Certain infections, in pregnant women, put the fetus at risk for birth defects. Cytomegalovirus Cytomegalovirus is a common herpesvirus which usually causes no symptoms in immunocompetent adults. In...
View ArticleRisk Factors for Prematurity
Preterm birth is the greatest single cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality in the US. 70% of infant deaths are due to preterm birth.[1] While most preterm babies survive, they’re at risk of...
View ArticleRisk Factors for Low Birth Weight
Low birth weight is defined by the WHO as an infant weighing less than 5 pounds 8 ounces. It’s a significant predictor of infant mortality in the first week of life, as well as other negative...
View ArticleHow to Avoid Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that first develops during pregnancy, usually in the third trimester. Gestational diabetes is bad because it can lead to babies being large for gestational age...
View ArticleWhat is Eclampsia Anyway?
Eclampsia is the onset of seizures in a pregnant woman with pre-eclampsia. It is a Very Bad Thing. Complications of eclampsia can kill the mother (about a 1% chance). Ok, so what’s pre-eclampsia? A...
View ArticleWhat Kills Babies?
Let’s start with the CDC’s statistics on infant mortality. Babies in the US are not that likely to die. The infant mortality rate is 5.96 per 1000 live births, or about 0.6%. Most of the risk is in...
View ArticleGiving Birth: How To Reduce Risk Of Badness
First things first: the mother is basically not going to die in childbirth. Maternal mortality rates in the US are 14 per 100,000, or a 0.0014% chance, or a few hundred deaths a year. This is not a...
View ArticleEpidurals!
Epidural anaesthesia is a painkiller, usually clonidine in the case of childbirth, injected into the space between the vertebrae in the spinal cord. Epidurals are good at relieving pain and don’t harm...
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