Julie's drawings Prenatal Screening at 35 and Beyond It seems that everywhere you turn, there's a story about a woman over 50 having a baby. The birth rate for women aged 40 to 44 has more than doubled since 1981, and 2003 marked the first time that births to women over 40 topped 100,000 in a single year. The changing role of women in our society, later age at first marriage, very effective contraceptive methods and the availability and acceptability of assisted reproductive technology have made later childbearing safer and more common. When it comes to prenatal testing, what should you expect when you're over 35 and pregnant? Many couples say they don't want prenatal testing because "they would never have an abortion" if an abnormality was detected. As recently as eight years ago, a recommendation of amniocentesis was the norm. Currently, the quad screen is the gold standard for early-second-trimester screening in all pregnancies.
Appellation Mountain What are the most popular baby names of all time? It sounds like a straightforward question. Except that there are different ways to measure usage. Are Steven and Stephen two names or one? Are we talking about the percentage of the population receiving a given name, or the name’s numerical ranking? Here’s one measure that seems fairly objective: the US Social Security Administration provides a chart showing those few names that have ranked in the US Top Five at some point since they started tracking these things in 1880. It’s an elite group, to be sure. The era matters. Names that I’ve written about have links in blue. Abigail - Call her a one-hit wonder. Alexis - Dynasty is over, and all of the Alex- names are slipping. Amanda - She was a favorite in the 1980s, but she still feels wearable in 2014, a literary coinage likely to make a comeback … eventually. Amy - A mini name from the 1970s, Amy wouldn’t be out of place in our Zoe-Ava age. Ashley - An 80s name par excellence.
Alice Bradley - Home Tests Performed During Pregnancy Excerpt from Every Woman's Body Prenatal TestingWomen who have chronic health problems or unusual health histories will have more tests than most women, although not all health care providers use the same tests and procedures. In addition to checking your baby's growth and position at each visit, common procedures include: Complete physical and medical history, including pelvic exam, urine test, blood pressure, and weight check Tests for sexually transmitted diseases Complete blood count to look for anemia or iron deficiency Blood typing Blood glucose tests to screen for diabetes. A variety of prenatal tests and procedures can be used to determine fetal health, including amniocentesis, alpha-fetoprotein screening--including the more reliable triple marker blood test, also known as the multi-screen test, chorionic villi sampling, ultrasound, and electronic fetal monitoring (EFM). Like this? Sign up for Today's Big Story
Baby Name Blog - Nameberry By Pamela Redmond Satran Nickname-names still appear on birth certificates. In the U.S., such names as Ellie, Abby, and Charlie for girls; Jake, Jack, and Johnny for boys all rank high. But there are generations of nickname-names that have fallen off the Top 1000, yet sound cute and baby-ready today. Whether you choose to use Bea or Mamie, Clem or Zeb as full names or as diminutives for Beatrice or Marietta, Clement or Zebediah, any of these nickname-names would make charming choices. Read More By Abby Sandel, Appellation Mountain Take a few minutes and try to list all the girls you know named Sophia – or Sophie or Sofia. Now list the names that are one of one. I only know a single girl called Ida, and just one named Arcadia. If you were AndersonCooper and you had been born in Germany, you wouldn’t be AndersonCooper, because Germany is just one of a surprising number of countries with strict baby-naming rules and regulations. And sure, it works out like that sometimes.
Social media in healthcare: Who is going beyond the basics? « MedCity News Hospitals have increasingly turned to social media over the past few years to connect with patients and get their messages out, a trend that’s virtually certain to grow. To be exact, 809 hospitals have a total of 2,337 social networking sites as of the end of November, according to Ed Bennett, director of web strategy at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The vast majority of those are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. So social media in healthcare is used to further patient outreach, dispense helpful medical advice, and share their latest news. “Hospitals are still behind the times with social media and only a small percentage are actually involved,” said Alisha Kuyper, spokeswoman for Flagstaff Medical Center in Arizona. However, it’s certainly possible and, for some hospitals, desirable to try new things with social media and make social media an important part of their business development strategies. Copyright 2014 MedCity News. Hear the latest industry news first
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