May your holiday be filled with love and joy … just not in the form of eggnog. That mix of milk, sugar, raw eggs, spices, and alcohol does NOT mix well with pregnancy. Pregnant women should avoid eggnog for a few reasons: 1. Let’s not kid ourselves here: it’s usually gross. If you need a […]

I know I’ve mentioned caffeine consumption in pregnancy before, but there’s so much to talk about! A good friend of mine is a coffee addict. Every morning. Post meals. She loves it. When she was pregnant, though, the thought of coffee repulsed her. She couldn’t even smell it without getting sick. I’ve been doing some […]

Winter’s here, and nobody wants alligator skin. Yes, even in Los Angeles we see our skin suffer with the season. What about skin care products during pregnancy? Blemishes, zits, peels? What is safe to use? First, most skin care products are safe to use during pregnancy. Topical benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, glycolic acid, and azelaic […]

Intro / addendum: I started giving postpartum care packages as baby shower and delivery gifts to my friends along with at least a little postpartum advice from their ‘call me anytime’ OBGYN.  This is the post that started it all. Those packages focused a bit more on the medical practicality side of things and a […]

The LA Zoo is full of educational surprises. Did you know that the tammar wallaby can mate and become pregnant again within just a few hours of giving birth? This little fact begs the questions: after a human female gives birth, when can she mate and become pregnant again? I usually give my patients the […]

Have you heard the “mask of pregnancy?” Unfortunately this mask is one that can’t be easily removed. The medical term for “mask of pregnancy” is melasma. It is increased pigmentation in areas of the face. Three main problem areas have been identified (we’ll use Marilyn to illustrate): Centrofacial: involves forehead, cheeks, nose, upper lip, chin […]

Here’s a picture of Harley the cat. He’s not mine. He’s my neighbor’s. But … I buy cat food for him. He’s waiting for me with a loud MEOW when I get home. He has claimed my lap as his personal napping arena. He sleeps on our couch. He refuses to drink water from a […]

Sometimes I love medical jargon. My phrase for the day: coital cephalgia. Translation: sexual headache. Yes, this is an actual diagnosis. It is headaches specifically associated with sexual excitement. Any sort of sexual excitement counts, including masturbation and oral sex. Two distinct types have been described: 1. Preorgasmic: dull headaches, usually at the back of […]

Even though births don’t increase with the moon’s cycle (as I showed you in last Sunday’s post), they certainly do increase at different times of the year. An amazing chart (via Huffington Post, but first published by a researcher at Harvard) is below, depicting the most common birthdays of the year. In honor of my […]

Doctors can be very superstitious. I’m not one of them. I don’t think saying “I hope there’s not a lot of traffic” predisposes me to bumper-to-bumper worst-of-LA congestion all the way home. I don’t think saying out loud “I hope I don’t get paged during dinner” means I should just order it all to go. […]