What Is Pre-Diabetes? Take the One-Minute Test…

You’ve decided you’re ready to start a family. In fact, you’ve decided that the next few months would be “ideal” to begin a pregnancy. But a month goes by, and then another, and no little + sign appears on the magic stick. You’re not exactly worried, nor should you be. Statistics say that around 20% of couples who will eventually have a spontaneous pregnancy do not conceive during the first six months that they attempt getting pregnant.  Obstetricians define infertility as the inability to achieve a successful pregnancy after twelve months of regular, unprotected intercourse. So, during…

Brookwood Women’s Services is again offering this excellent program (Saturday May 4th, 9 AM), and Dr. Whitehead is looking forward to participating. Click here to find registration information.
From my childhood in Botswana (my parents were missionaries), I am deeply aware of the difference reproductive-health information can make in the lives of women and girls. The HIV/AIDS epidemic devastated Botswana. Women, particularly young women ages 15 to 24, are still suffering in greater numbers than men, and progress has stalled. The fact of their limited opportunity, especially in education, makes them vulnerable. Nearly half of them cannot…

An episiotomy—the small surgical incision made to enlarge the vaginal opening shortly before a baby is delivered—was not a commonly accepted birth procedure until the twentieth century.  But by mid-century, over half of vaginal deliveries included an episiotomy. The idea was that making a small incision would reduce the risk of a large spontaneous tear in the tissues surrounding the vagina (the perineum) as the infant’s head delivered.

As physicians, we want to offer our patients only medical interventions that—based on solid evidence—actually benefit them. By the 1980s, we began to realize that the…