What is placenta accreta? In a normal pregnancy, the placenta is attached to the uterus until birth and is naturally expelled after the baby exits the birth canal. Placenta accreta is a condition in which the placenta is unable to properly separate from the uterus during labor and delivery because it has grown too deeply…
Did you know that there are three stages of labor? It’s true. The first stage of labor refers to the period between the onset of labor and the point when a woman’s cervix is dilated to 10 centimeters; the second stage is the period between when the woman’s cervix is dilated to 10 centimeters and…
In the United States and Canada, C-section delivery has become more common over the past few decades. In contrast, there has been a decline in operative vaginal deliveries (those which involve tools such as forceps or vacuum extractors). Because of this inverse relationship, some have suggested that performing more operative deliveries could be a good…
Although much is known about patterns in fetal development at the cellular and molecular level, we do not yet have molecular tests that can reliably determine the gestational age of an individual fetus. Instead, gestational age is typically estimated based on the date of a woman’s last menstrual period and/or ultrasound imaging. However, women do…
The Clever Medical C-Section Drape Comes to Spectrum Health’s Butterworth Hospital This week, Grand Rapids’ Spectrum Health Family Birthplace became the first medical facility in Michigan to adopt the Clever Medical C-section drape, a device invented to allow mothers delivering via C-section the opportunity to bond with their babies immediately after delivery. The Family Birthplace,…
Recent research from Amos Grunebaum, MD, and Frank A. Chervenak, MD of the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York finds that women who have had a prior C-Section and who opted to have a subsequent home birth have a much greater risk of their children having serious complications (including seizures and neurological dysfunction). Home…
Mark your calendars for April, because April is Cesarean Awareness Month! This event seeks to educate the public about C-sections and to reduce the rate of unnecessary C-sections. We support this stance, and would like to add our own goals to this admirable stance: educating the public about when C-sections are necessary. Emergency C-Sections At…
In our previous article, we discussed a recent study that found a connection between severity of seizures and neonatal severity of injury. At Reiter & Walsh, P.C., we have won many successful cases where severe birth injuries caused brain injuries that resulted in severe seizures and seizure disorders. As the study reiterated, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy…
According to a 2006 study by obstetricians and gynecologists Gary D. Hankins, MD, Shannon M. Clark, MD and Mary B. Munn, MD, planned elective cesarean sections can significantly reduce the risk of birth injuries. The doctors studied over 2,100 articles from the national library of medicine. They searched for the following terms: fetal trauma, shoulder dystocia,…
Negligent acts and medical errors related to obstetrical care can turn a joyful birth into a parent’s nightmare. A couple in New Jersey now knows what can happen when doctors misuse Pitocin and other labor induction drugs. Due to medical errors in labor, their baby died of acute respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy…
