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New mother accuses NHS of fat-shaming after receiving an ‘insulting’ leaflet on weight loss just seven weeks after giving birth

mymedicplus — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 06:09:33 +0000

Source – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Dawn Wilson, from South Lanarkshire, received leaflet on weight loss after birth
Claimed was visited only once by health visitor after birth of her daughter Ava
Said the NHS should be more understanding and supportive of new mothers

A new mum has slammed her local NHS trust for fat-shaming her with an ‘insulting’ weight loss leaflet just seven weeks after she gave birth.

Dawn Wilson, from Forth, South Lanarkshire, received the ‘cheeky’ fact sheet titled ‘top 10 tips for achieving a healthy weight after having a baby’ on Friday morning.

The 29-year-old gave birth to her first child Ava McGilvray in August and claims she has only been seen once by a health visitor.

When she read through the list, she noted it advised mums to ‘attend a postnatal exercise class’ despite most being cancelled.

The senior care assistant has now called on the NHS to ‘be more forgiving’ of new mums and stop shaming them for eating a ‘chocolate biscuit’.

NHS Lanarkshire said sending out leaflets like this was ‘not their usual practice’ and confirmed they were looking into the circumstances.

Dawn said: ‘I was shocked to receive this. How cheeky of them to insinuate I need to lose weight, given that nobody has seen me for almost six weeks.

‘I find it rather insulting. My health visitor has seen my baby once at one-week-old and is due on Monday for her development check at seven-weeks-old.

‘They have no idea the efforts I may or may not be doing to already lose weight.

‘It would also be nice to get something about mental health in there [on the list]. I don’t think my main focus right now is on my body.

‘It took nine months of stretching my stomach – it won’t go down overnight.

‘Of course my stomach is still wobbly, it had a baby grow in there for nine months and not even two months later it’s expected to be back to normal.

‘I think personally maternity services are shocking during this. Then to add insult to injury I get a letter implying I could use losing some weight when woman’s mental health is under stress with everything else.

‘They need to be more forgiving to people who have just had babies. Focus more on being positive and promoting positive mental health than making mums feel guilty for having a takeaway or a chocolate biscuit.’

Since going on maternity leave and giving birth to little Ava, Dawn admits she has sometimes turned to convenience foods if the infant is ‘grumpy and crying’.

But despite her occasional quick meal, Dawn believes mums shouldn’t be shamed – especially when most of their options for socialising with new mums have been cancelled.

Dawn said: ‘Newborns are stressful to the best of minds, never mind during a global pandemic with cheeky letters saying to put down the chocolate bar.

‘If my baby is grumpy and crying and just wants to be held, then of course I’m going to make chicken dippers and chips for me and my partner over a homecooked lasagne.

‘[They] don’t know if I have gone down to my pre-pregnancy weight, which I feel I have. All my clothes fit me again.

‘The healthy eating part isn’t really even the insulting part, but I find it highly ironic they are recommending fitness classes given they are all shut due to COVID.

‘We’ve had no antenatal classes, no normal maternity services, there are no baby classes currently.

‘The wording could be less [focused on] you needing to lose weight after having a baby and [instead] “Here are the tips we have and the classes you need”.

‘It could have something a bit more positive like “we understand focus is on your newborn and time is mainly on their needs, but think about your own”.

‘I feel a bit robbed of maternity leave given that I’m stuck at home with my baby. I’m not allowed visitors, no classes and I can’t visit anyone.’

Lynsey Sutherland, associate nurse director of children’s services and family nurse partnership, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: ‘We aim to provide the highest standard of care to all our patients and we regret any instance where someone feels we have not met this standard.

‘We do not routinely send out letters to new mothers but information is provided as part of a ‘first visit’ pack issued by health visitors during home visits.

‘If Dawn wishes to provide any feedback in relation to her recent post-natal care, I would ask that she contact our patient affairs department who will be happy to assist.

‘We cannot confirm sending out the leaflet as it is not our usual practice, but we are currently looking into the circumstances.’

The post New mother accuses NHS of fat-shaming after receiving an ‘insulting’ leaflet on weight loss just seven weeks after giving birth appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

New Model Predicts Likelihood of Giving Birth After Surgery and ART

mymedicplus — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 07:32:32 +0000

source:

A new tool appears to be more accurate than commonly used indexes for predicting the likelihood of successfully giving birth for women with endometriosis who undergo surgery followed by assisted reproduction (ART).

This model could be useful for counseling couples on the best fertility strategy to follow, including whether egg donation should be considered.

“Predicting the likelihood of a live birth for women with endometriosis-related infertility,” the study detailing this tool, was published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

Endometriosis — in which womb cells develop elsewhere in the body — is estimated to affect 10% of women of reproductive age. Two of its main symptoms are pain and infertility. The exact link between the disease and infertility is not well-understood, but treatments are available to help manage the condition.

The first therapeutic option usually is a laparoscopy, a surgical procedure during which the surgeon removes endometrial lesions. Studies have shown improved pregnancy rates following this type of surgery, but the success rate is not clear.

If pregnancy does not occur, assisted reproductive techniques (ART) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), usually are recommended.

Laparoscopy and ART both can be done, the researchers said, noting that a significant proportion of women with endometriosis-related infertility choose to undergo surgery “not to increase their chances of pregnancy, but to improve their quality of life.”

“For these women, the real question is not whether surgery is superior to ART in first line, but rather what their real chances of giving birth are,” the investigators said.

What should and can be done to improve the chances of pregnancy in women who undergo both processes is still being debated.

Several tools have been created to assist both patients and physicians in making treatment decisions, but these guides still have many limitations.

Seeking to address this problem, the researchers now created a nomogram — an alignment chart for predicting values — to better estimate the likelihood of a live birth among women with endometriosis-related infertility who underwent surgery followed by ART.

To create the tool, the team used data from 297 women with endometriosis who attempted to conceive by ART — specifically, intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection-in vitro fertilization, or ICSI-IVF — following surgery. The women were treated between 2004 and 2016 at the Jean Verdier University Hospital in France.

Of the 297 women included in the study, 218 had a pregnancy (73.4%) and 171 (57.6%) had a live birth.

The predictive model took into account clinical, biological, and surgical characteristics — namely the age, duration of infertility, number of ICSI-IVF cycles, and ovarian reserve (the capacity of the ovary to provide egg). The model also incorporated the revised American Fertility Society (rAFS) score, the most widely used staging system for endometriosis.

To validate how well this model could predict live births, the researchers did both internal and external validations. For external validations, they tested the model in a separate dataset of 106 women with endometriosis who underwent ART after surgery and whose pregnancy outcomes were known.

In that test, the model achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.71 and calibration “was good,” the researchers said. AUC is a measure of how well a model is capable of discriminating the outcome of an observation. The closer AUC values get to 1, the better the predictive power of the model.

The researchers also compared the predictive ability of the new model with the Endometriosis Fertility Index (EFI), the scale normally used in clinical practice to predict spontaneous pregnancy after endometriosis surgery.

The nomogram’s accuracy in predicting live births was 0.77, while the EFI’s accuracy was 0.60. This suggests “that the model is more accurate than the EFI score for predicting LBR [live-birth rate],” the researchers said.

“Another advantage of the nomogram lies in its dynamic nature: the model takes into account the number of ICSI-IVF cycles which influences the LBR and therefore reflects changes in the probability of a live birth during a patient’s ART course,” they added.

The new model could be used in routine practice to facilitate patient counseling, the investigators said. They noted that it might be especially useful for women with a poor prognosis who need to make “a swift, informed decision about their fertility strategy.”

Using this tool also may be helpful for women who must decide whether to consider egg donation, the researchers said. They note that when to introduce oocyte donation is a major topic of debate, as that often is a woman’s last opportunity to conceive.

The nomogram could “be used to inform couples early on about this option which is especially important in view of the long waiting times” that can happen in some countries, the investigators said.

The post New Model Predicts Likelihood of Giving Birth After Surgery and ART appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

Six of the best pregnancy blogs for parents-to-be

mymedicplus — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 09:44:34 +0000

Source :- medicalnewstoday.com

Whether you are a first-time parent-to-be or a parenting expert, pregnancy often throws up a million and one questions that we depend on online pregnancy resources to answer. Pregnancy blogs cover anything and everything from weekly development guides to personal birth stories, so how do you know which ones are worth reading? We have trawled through hundreds of blogs to give you our six pregnancy blog must-reads.
[A pregnant woman using a computer]
Every year, the U.S. sees around 4 million births.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are around 4 million births in the United States every year. The journey to each one of these births is vastly different from one person to the next and can sometimes throw in a few challenges along the way.

Reading pregnancy blogs on the run-up to the big day may give some insight into the emotional and physical changes that are happening inside the body, help prepare you for the inevitable birthing process, and provide engagement with like-minded people who are going through similar experiences.

So, without further ado, here is Medical News Today’s pick of the best pregnancy blogs, a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind them, and their most popular articles.

Alpha Mom
Alpha Mom is a pregnancy and parenting blog run by Isabel Kallman. The blog provides information in an easy-to-read format, layered with reality, personal accounts, light-heartedness, and an injection of humor. Alpha Mom also answers reader’s questions in a way that seems as though you are in conversation with your best friend.

The pregnancy section covers everything under the sun, from a week-by-week pregnancy guide and articles on hospital visitor etiquette, to reviews of the best baby monitors.

“Alpha Mom was started because, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, motherhood was not a natural instinct for me, and, I discovered I was not alone – there are many (many) just like me. Rather than running to grandma, I ran to Google,” Isabel Kallman told MNT.

“See, it’s connectedness that is a new mom’s first instinct. And, with nonjudgmental support and advice from other moms and parenting professionals, we try to help women embrace motherhood with confidence,” she added.

Isabel’s top tips for parents-to-be: “Radically accept that just when you think you’ve got this parenting thing down, your kid(s) cut your sea legs out from under you again. That’s their job: to keep you on your toes.”

Here are Alpha Mom’s top three most popular pregnancy articles:

Week-by-week pregnancy calendar
Labor & delivery turf wars: Delivery room bullies
The gender-neutral clothing war

Pregnant Chicken
Pregnant Chicken is the brainchild of Amy Morrison. “I started the site in 2010 after being frustrated with how scary all the pregnancy sites were,” Amy informed MNT. “They had tons of options but very little information, so I set out to create a site that laid out the facts in a clear, fun way so that parents could make their own decisions.”

[A pregnant woman with baby shoes on her belly]
‘Books, websites, and people should make you feel good about your pregnancy – not overwhelm you or make you feel scared or under-qualified.’
Pregnant Chicken tops our charts for the wittiest, most comically written pregnancy blog. The blog provides articles covering a wide range of topics from laugh-out-loud pictorial articles such as cool ways to announce your pregnancy, to serious articles that tackle subjects including postpartum depression in a reassuring way.

Amy’s top tips for parents-to-be: “To all pregnant women, I say: ‘be kind to yourself.’ Take that extra nap instead of brushing up on baby sign language. Eat a donut if you want one. Books, websites, and people should make you feel good about your pregnancy – not overwhelm you or make you feel scared or under-qualified. You’ve got this.”

Here are Pregnant Chicken’s top three most popular pregnancy articles:

Happily after giving birth – 10 things they don’t tell you
Breastfeeding in the first week: 4 things you will be glad you knew
7 things every pregnant woman should do, at least once
Evidence Based Birth
Evidence Based Birth is the creation of mother, wife, Ph.D.-prepared nurse researcher, and blogger, Rebecca Dekker.

“I started Evidence Based Birth after the birth of my second child,” Rebecca explained to MNT.

“With my first baby, I left the hospital feeling disempowered and confused by the care I had received. With my second baby, my midwife respected my decisions and promoted my health throughout my pregnancy and birth. The care I received during that second birth inspired me to start publishing all of the research I had been collecting between pregnancies,” she added.

The blog’s popularity escalated quickly after its launch in 2012, with millions of visitors from all around the world lining up to learn about the evidence behind childbirth practices. The Evidence Based Birth site is also a hub for people who want to improve the quality of maternity care globally.

Our pick of comprehensive, evidence-based information on the blog includes evidence on due dates and inducing labor, the benefits of having support from a doula during labor, and the safety of water birth.

Rebecca’s top tips for parents-to-be: “Hire a doula and take a really good childbirth education class. Educating yourself and gathering information is the first step in having an empowering experience!”

Here are Evidence Based Birth’s top three most popular pregnancy articles:

Evidence for the Vitamin K shot in newborns
What is the evidence for induction or C-section for a big baby?
The evidence on advanced maternal age

Mother Rising
Mother Rising is a holistic pregnancy blog created by Lindsey Morrow. As a childbirth educator, doula, and mother of three, Lindsey has oodles of experience in the pregnancy advice arena and this experience is reflected in the positive and inspiring tone of the blog.

[A pregnant woman holding her belly]
‘Pregnancy and becoming a parent is not merely a physical process – it is an emotional and spiritual journey as well.’
“I started writing a blog because I made a website to advertise my local childbirth classes and it came with a built-in blog function,” Lindsey told MNT. “It turned out I enjoyed writing about pregnancy and childbirth just as much as I enjoyed teaching face to face!”

“Eventually, I made the decision [to] focus my blog posts solely on helping women have a healthy pregnancy, natural birth and happy postpartum,” Lindsey added.

Our favorite articles include Mother Rising’s natural pregnancy checklist, which lists tasks to complete broken down by trimester, and things to avoid saying to a woman in labor.

Lindsey’s top tips for parents-to-be: “Pregnancy and becoming a parent is not merely a physical process – it is an emotional and spiritual journey as well. Because pregnancy is more than a bodily function, it is imperative to respond holistically.”

“For example,” she added, “reading pregnancy books, practicing prenatal yoga, taking a good childbirth class, learning to navigate the medical community, and exploring one’s responses to pain are all equally important pieces of the pregnancy journey.”

Here are Mother Rising’s top three most popular pregnancy articles:

How to prevent tearing during birth
Surprise! Pitocin is linked to postpartum depression
How to labor at home as long as possible
Plus Size Birth
Jen McLellan is a published author, certified childbirth educator, public speaker, and founder of Plus Size Birth.

[An expectant mother using a computer]
‘As a plus size woman, my experience felt different because I couldn’t find images of people my size in pregnancy magazines or websites,’ said Plus Size Birth founder, Jen McLellan.
“As a plus size woman, my experience felt different because I couldn’t find images of people my size in pregnancy magazines or websites. I also mainly found negative information online that led me to believe I would incur complications,” Jen revealed to MNT.

“I did everything possible to have a good outcome. I ate healthily, fell in love with water aerobics, hired a doula, and connected with a midwife at a hospital with a low cesarean birth rate.”

“Once I settled into motherhood, I wanted to share my story,” she added. “I wanted other plus size women not only to see images of women they could identify with but also become educated in a very positive way on how to have a healthy pregnancy.”

With articles exploring what to expect during pregnancy care, plus size pregnancy exercise tips, and plus sized pregnancy essentials, there is something on this blog for every plus sized mommy-to-be.

Jen’s top tips for parents-to-be: “For all women, it’s important they are proactive with their nutrition and activity throughout pregnancy. For plus size women, there’s a third element to having a healthy pregnancy, and that’s hiring a size-friendly healthcare provider.”

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