Below are some useful guides for when you are deciding to have baby. Decide if you will be private or public patient. There are huge differences between private and public pregnancy and childbirth care, with public being the inferior quality, poor cousin of private...
Many more women have anxiety in pregnancy today than in the past. This is not only my personal observation but also the opinion of midwives with whom I work and medical studies findings. This is not because pregnancy and childbirth are more dangerous today than in the...
This is a comment made to me by many pregnant patients. It is not that they don’t want to be pregnant. It is that they are struggling because of adverse symptoms of pregnancy that they are experiencing. There are many adverse symptoms that a woman can experience in...
Patients frequently ask for my permission to travel overseas during pregnancy. I usually make the comment, “Make sure you have appropriate travel insurance cover for pregnancy”. I had never thought more about travel insurance in pregnancy until recently when I read a...
I first met Annie for management of her second pregnancy. Her first pregnancy had an incredibly sad outcome. She delivered at 25 weeks a little boy named Aiden who died soon after birth. I asked Annie to provide me with details of what had happened in her first...
There has been a lot of fear in the community about conceiving doing the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. I am pleased to advise as a specialist obstetrician doctor that I consider it is safe to conceive and embark on that very wanted pregnancy. Each day there is...
Many patients have told me they started thinking about what it will be like to be a mummy when they were young girls cuddling dolls and pretending their dolls were real babies. Becoming a mother has a very special place in a woman’s heart and for so many women is the...
I first met Laura in 2013. She saw me for management of her third pregnancy. Her first two pregnancies had been unsuccessful. She had had two early first trimester miscarriages. She was not aware of a reason why she miscarried. Her third pregnancy was also not...
Pregnancy and childbirth complications can happen irrespective of who is managing your pregnancy. But with considerable professional clinical experience that is consequence of having managed many thousands of pregnant women and with personalised patient care the...
Physical appearance is an important matter to many women and being pregnant can cause major concern because of the associated changes in body shape. There are some pregnant women who enjoy the physical appearance changes that come with being pregnant, while others...
It is that time of year when health funds are about to increase their premiums. This year’s increase thankfully is quite modest. It is the least increase in nearly two decades. The average private health insurance premium will increase by 3.95% from 1st April 2018....
I was chatting with a patient and her husband about whether they had thought of a name for their soon to be born baby. This lead to the husband telling me of a friend who knew of a child with the first name ‘Abcde’. The parents of Abcde obviously thought this was a...
Catherine saw me at eight weeks gestation for management of her 4th pregnancy. Her first three pregnancies had been unsuccessful. She told me in her first pregnancy she had a placental abruption with threatened preterm labour at 23 weeks. At 24 weeks her membranes...
I am asked from time to time in advanced pregnancy: “Baby is almost due - what do I need to do?" Pack Your Bag. By about 36 weeks pregnant have your hospital bags packed. Make a written note of last minute items you will need to add. It is better if you should have...
Pregnancy care checklist We are often asked about 'what happens when' with pregnancy care. With that question on mind I have put together the table below as a guide. 8 Weeks First visit with me for most patients I will give you a referral for routine pregnancy tests,...
I am asked from time to time: “How can I prepare to have a baby?” So, I have put this checklist together which covers the points that are relevant before you start trying. Health fund. Make sure you have appropriate health fund cover that covers you for confinement in...
On December 1st 2016 driving rules in NSW changed for learner, P1 and P2 licence holders. Learner, P1 and P2 licence holders are now not permitted to use a mobile phone at all while driving. “These laws encourage learner and provisional drivers and riders to...
This is an amazing and wonderful story of a fabulous couple who after 15 years of trying to have to baby and despite a very challenging high-risk pregnancy because of severe preeclampsia have been blessed with was a beautiful baby boy. Irene and her husband married in...
I am frequently asked: “Is my baby the right size?”, “When does my baby put on the most weight?” and “How big is my baby likely to be at birth?” At each antenatal visit, I do ultrasound scanning of the unborn baby. There is no patient expense for this service. As well...
A 25-year-old patient attended at eight weeks pregnancy for her first antenatal visit of her first pregnancy. Initially, the pregnancy progressed normally and without any concerns. There started to be a slight fall-off in baby’s growth, first detected by ultrasound...
A patient recently saw me for her postnatal visit. A postnatal visit is always a wonderful visit of celebration - the end of a successful pregnancy and the birth of a new baby. This was a very special postnatal visit because of this patient’s obstetric history. In...
Chantell saw me for her postnatal visit this week. Chantell is a first-time mum who is also a group fitness instructor. Prior to her pregnancy, she took lots of group fitness classes at the gym, with her favourite being combat classes. When she saw me for her first...
Recently after church, I was chatting with a new mum whose baby daughter I had delivered eight days earlier and I was very pleased to see she had her baby in a protective sling. Not only was this very convenient for her and took up minimal space in the car (c.f. a...
Management of childbirth in the excessively overweight patient was a topic of discussion at a recent department meeting at one of the hospitals I attend. Obesity is increasing in incidence in the community. Now approximately 50 per cent of women who become pregnant...
In the excellent video clip titled ‘Importance of the early years’ by Professor Glover of Imperial College London UK which I mentioned in my previous blog ‘Foundations of childhood behaviour’ Professor Glover also states “We now know that towards the end of pregnancy...
Last weekend my wife and I spent time with old friends from our time living in Oxford UK, Dave and Di Nutt. Dave is now a psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist working at Imperial College London UK and is a world authority on brain function specialising in the...
The husband of a pregnant patient who attended with his wife today for an antenatal visit commented after a question from his wife: “You must have to spend a lot of time reassuring your patients because of old wives tales told to them.” The answer is: “Yes”. It is...
A healthy diet It is very important to endeavour to be in optimal nutritional health before you conceive and in pregnancy. When you are pregnant you are feeding two not one! Because of chemical additives in the food you buy in the supermarket, etc. it is very had to...
Walking is an excellent idea. As well, antenatal exercise classes are available through the hospital and privately. You can inquire about the hospital classes when you book. See also in link section exercise in pregnancy. Working Normally I am not concerned about...
Pregnancy is an exciting time when you have new life (your baby) developing and growing in your uterus. I am regularly asked "what can I do?", "what can't I do?", "what can I eat?", "what can't I eat?" etc. A mother-to-be wants to look after her precious cargo in her...
A patient sent me a Facebook message the other day. Her son had tragically died in utero at 37 weeks gestation 7 years ago. After delivery, the cause for his death was very apparent. The umbilical cord was tightly tied around his neck twice. There was so much...
That is not an easy question to answer. The reason why we use the first date of the last menstrual period (LMP) in calculating the expected date of confinement (EDC) is because most women know their LMP date. But most women don’t know the actual date of ovulation. The...
In a health topics Q & A website where I was invited to be a health expert I was asked the question: “How do you recover from a miscarriage? My family thinks I should "be over" my miscarriage by now, but I'm still grieving. Is this normal?” This is a very relevant...
While many say eating pineapples and papaya should be avoided in pregnancy because they can trigger miscarriage and the onset of premature labour, this opinion are based on theoretical consideration and some laboratory animal studies. I am not aware of any clinical...
I find that most women, to some extent, have a fear of being pregnant. This is often because pregnancy is something new, they have no experience and they are not in control over it to a large extent. So fear can be regarded as a normal reaction. But as well a woman’s...
Yesterday a wonderful patient delivered her beautiful baby. It was her first. After delivering the baby’s head and anterior shoulder I turned to Dad and asked if he wanted to take over. He nervously said, “what do I do?" I showed him where to put his hands and...
It was 4.00pm Monday afternoon. I was in consultation with a gynaecology patient in my office when my mobile phone rang. It was a call from the Birth Unit midwife. A patient who was 32 weeks pregnant was attending a routine antenatal class at the hospital and...
It is so exciting to have the first antenatal visit with a couple during their first pregnancy. By their expressions and their words, you can tell their incredible excitement and expectation that it is such a joyful time. But they have never been on this incredible...
*Saturday morning appointments are not available for initial antenatal visit.
