We are proud to partner with Baby Steps Bama as a sponsor of their Golden Gala.  Baby Steps is a non-profit organization that supports pregnant and parenting college students so that they are empowered to thrive as both parents and students.
The organization’s vision is “to create a culture of empowerment that changes how universities, communities, and society as a whole respond to and support Student-Moms. Young women facing unplanned pregnancies should not be defined by their circumstances but empowered to thrive. We are diligently working to bring Baby Steps to Student-Moms across the nation.” So…

What is endometriosis?
Endometriosis in a condition in which tissue normally found in the lining of the uterus begins to grow in other areas of a woman’s abdomen. It is normal tissue, not a cancer, but it can still cause great discomfort and other medical problems. Endometriosis is very common, affecting about one in ten women.

The misplaced endometrial tissue can become attached to the ovaries, fallopian tubes, the outside surface of the uterus, the bladder, bowel, or other places in the pelvis.
What problems does endometriosis cause…

The New Year and its traditions are upon us. For most of us, the festivities will include some combination of watching football, eating collards and black-eyed peas, attending a party, counting down the ball descent on Times Square, toasting 2024, AND making a New Year’s resolution!

Notice that the last item is not likely to help any of us look forward to 2024 with optimism. The reason is obvious. Experience tells us that most New Year’s resolutions are doomed to fail. So today our New Year’s greeting for patients and friends will not include the typical…

We want to remind you of the risks of postponing screening tests and other preventive healthcare.
Research tells us that Americans fear cancer more than any other health event, even though heart disease is the leading cause of death. Much of this fear comes from the belief that cancer or cancer death is just a matter of random chance, something we are powerless to prevent. But let’s look at the actual facts about gynecologic cancers.

We refer to any cancer that begins in a woman’s reproductive organs as a gynecologic cancer. About 100,000 women are newly diagnosed…

Few of our expectant moms have missed the message that breastfeeding has many benefits. But, while we continue educating expectant and new mothers about how good it is for baby, we don’t want to overwhelm them with the idea that breastfeeding—because it is natural—should always be easy to do. Some well-meaning breastfeeding advocates cite higher breastfeeding rates in third-world countries. Such statistics suggest that successful breastfeeding happens naturally in cultures where breastfeeding is the norm, and it happens despite inadequate healthcare and education for women.

Many suppose that, in developing countries like Botswana where I…

One of the great privileges of our work as obstetricians is the opportunity to witness, again and again, the moment when a man becomes a father. During the pregnancy, he waits in a supporting role. He attends prenatal appointments and childbirth classes, assembles a crib, installs a car seat, and offers his partner whatever help and comfort he can. During the first minutes after the birth, he watches his partner hold their tiny infant against her skin while a nurse works to clear the baby’s nose and mouth and dry the skin. Someone calls out a few numbers (the…

There may be a delay in receiving your mammogram or other imaging results. The radiology practice that reads mammograms for our office and mammograms and other imaging for Brookwood’s Women’s Diagnostic Center recently had damages to its facility. No studies were lost, but it is taking time to recover and catch up on the backlog of reports.
We will be working diligently to release your results after receiving them from the radiologist.

Sign up for the patient portal so that your results can be released to you electronically instead of having to wait for a letter in the…

What’s for dinner tonight? Chances are good that it’s not a fish or seafood meal. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that 8 ounces of fish/seafood per week are part of a healthy eating pattern. Most Americans (80 to 90%) do not reach that goali. We may be missing out on nutrients that benefit our overall health.
Why is Fish an Important Nutrient Source?ii
(For everyone, but especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or might become pregnancy.)

Fish is an excellent source of protein—one of the critical building blocks of tissue growth, repair…

As we come to the end of Heart Month, we’d like to remind women about unique heart-health risks you may face decades before the menopause years. In the U.S., cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and the postpartum period (the weeks after delivery). 

An essential part of your pregnancy-related healthcare visits, both before conception and throughout your pregnancy, is a measure of your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is not normal, we often recheck it again later in your visit. James Martin, M.D., chair of the Pregnancy and Heart Disease…

The Pap Test Changes Cervical Cancer Survival
Most women regard a Pap Test as a routine part of their reproductive health care. Sometimes you don’t even notice the moment during your exam when your doctor swabs or brushes the cervix to collect cells from its surface. This small sample of cells is sent to a lab where it is examined to look for pre-cancerous or cancerous cells within the sample.

In 1943, Dr. George Nicholas Papanicolaou published his description of a simple procedure that could distinguish normal from abnormal cells taken from swabs of the vagina and cervix…