Body image postpartum: Healing versus “getting your body back”
Recovering from birth and adjusting to motherhood is an elaborate, long-term process. Many mothers struggle with the way they look after giving birth, and women experience body dissatisfaction at a much higher rate during the postpartum period than pre-pregnancy or...
Postpartum depression, nutrition, and gut flora
In this blog, we’ll be discussing lesser-known facts about postpartum depression (PPD). The first section will cover PPD risk factors, and then we’ll continue with nutritional strategies to prevent PPD. The last section also contains clinician and patient resources...
Lithium and male fertility
A few months ago, we covered the topic of lithium carbonate and its effects on pregnancy outcomes. The research we uncovered is detailed here—an essential read for bipolar patients who are planning a pregnancy. However, as we’ve been learning through our blogs...
5 tips to avoid preeclampsia blood pressure ranges
Preeclampsia is a serious and complex condition that can lead to severe pregnancy complications. In my previous two blogs, I discussed blood tests to help predict the risk of preeclampsia and risk factors to address before conception. In today's blog, you’ll learn...
Why do you get preeclampsia?
Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, characterized by the presence of protein in the urine (proteinuria) in addition to hypertension. It can also cause symptoms such as blurry vision, headache, and abdominal pain. Most seriously, preeclampsia...
Are you paying attention to these predictive preeclampsia blood tests?
Preeclampsia involves high blood pressure alongside maternal kidney dysfunction (typically manifesting as edema, proteinuria, or abnormal creatinine levels), multiple organ failure, and abnormal placental or uterine function. It is one of the leading causes of...
Pregnancy, bipolar disorder, & thyroid function
This is the second part of our series on concerns for pregnant people with bipolar disorder. In part one, we discussed lithium and its risks and potential benefits. In this second part of the series, we’ll explore thyroid function in the context of both pregnancy and...
Pregnant with bipolar? What you should know about lithium during pregnancy
Lithium carbonate has been used in the US to treat bipolar disorder since 1970. However, the use of lithium in psychiatry goes back to the 1800s, although only briefly, only to resurface in 1949 as a treatment for manic episodes (1). It has a long track record and...
Hookworm…in pregnancy?
Every six years or so, social media explodes with hysteria about parasites. As the lifelong rebel and devil’s advocate I am, I’ve delved quite a bit into research on the potentially beneficial role of parasites…more on that later. But what about parasites...