Miscarriage, Medicine & Miracles Everything You Need to Know about Miscarriage

by Young, Bruce; Zavatto, Amy

• ISBN13: 9780553384857
• ISBN10: 0553384856
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-28
• Publisher: Bantam

Summary

From one of the foremost doctors in the field and a woman who has experienced miscarriage herself comes a comprehensive, encouraging, and accessible guide on both the causes and, more important, the prevention of miscarriage. Though one in four American women will lose her pregnancy, this heartbreaking experience remains a taboo subject, fraught with myths and misinformation. But with the right prepregnancy evaluation and ongoing care, for many women miscarriage can be prevented. During forty years of practice, Dr. Bruce Young has treated hundreds of women who experienced the heartbreaking loss of miscarriage and helped them bring babies to term. Now he has teamed up with one of his patients who experienced miscarriages herself, Amy Zavatto, to write this informative, compassionate guide that combines the medical facts with insights from the patient's and doctor's viewpoints. Dr. Young thoroughly explains the basics of pregnancy and miscarriage, and provides in-depth answers to the questions:Why did this happen to me?andWhat can I do to prevent it next time? Including case studies of patients who'd experienced recurrent miscarriages, Dr. Young illustrates a variety of reasons for pregnancy lossfrom diabetes to genetics, from hormonal deficiencies to autoimmune disordersexplaining why each miscarriage occurred, as well as how to diagnose and in many cases treat the underlying problem. Providing the most up-to-date information on physical and mental health, nutrition, and technology,Miscarriage, Medicine & Miraclesis a proactive tool and comforting resourcefrom an expert with real-life reasons to give every woman hope for a successful pregnancy. From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

Bruce Young, MD., is internationally known as a leader and innovator in obstetrics and gynecology. He developed the first obstetrical intensive care unit and founded the Division of Maternal and Fetal Medicine at NYU Medical Center. He is currently the Silverman Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NYU Medical School and is listed in America’s Top Doctors and in New York magazine’s Best Doctors 2007.

Amy Zavatto is a freelance writer in New York City. Her work appears in Planned Parenthood’s Teen Wire magazine, as well as in Food & Wine, New York, Plenty, and Gotham, among others.


From the Hardcover edition.

Excerpts

Chapter One


Preparing for Pregnancy: Understanding Your Body


NEWLYWEDS DIANA AND GREG STARTED TO THINK ABOUT having children within the first year they tied the knot. Now 25, Diana had been my patient since she was a teenager. At her routine visit six months before, I congratulated her on her recent marriage and her new job as a fund-raiser for the university she’d attended as an undergrad. I suggested that she come in for a pre-pregnancy session and bring along her husband, Greg, an outgoing and friendly newspaper writer, to discuss pregnancy.

When I met Diana ten years ago, her mother had brought her to my office. She was 15 and had been complaining of abdominal pain, which was getting worse and worse. At first, she told me, the pain came and went, although it was sometimes severe, but lately it was nearly continuous and she could not function at all. That day in my office she said the pain was across her lower abdomen and came in waves, but was constant and worse on the right side. It had gotten so bad it was affecting not just her after-school soccer, but her academic work as well. Understandably, both Diana and her mom were anxious about this frightening problem.

I examined Diana and found her abdomen to be very tender. I did a sonogram, which showed me that she had an ovarian cyst, causing a twisted right ovary—immediate surgery was necessary to save her ovary. I performedlaparoscopic surgery, removed the cyst, and was able to untwist the ovary and save it, preserving her fertility.

laparoscopic surgery


Considered a minimally invasive procedure, laparoscopic surgery is performed by making several small incisions in the abdomen, usually one-half to one centimeter in length. An incision is made through the navel (although the incision may also be made just below the navel, I like to make it through the navel so the scar can’t be seen). A thin, long tube called a lap- aroscope is inserted through the incision into the patient. A camera is attached to the outside of the laparoscope, enabling the surgeon to see inside the patient by viewing an image on a TV screen transmitted by the camera. Tiny instruments are then inserted through secondary incisions to perform the surgery.

Now, a decade later, Diana was ready to put that fertility to use. She and Greg were planning pregnancy in about four months, after she finished working on a particularly stressful fund-raiser for the university’s capital endowment. I reviewed each of their medical histories and asked about their families to be sure that there were no hereditary problems or increased risk for miscarriage.

I examined Diana again and confirmed that there were no new findings and that she remained physically well. There was no residual scarring from her previous surgery; in fact, there were no visible scars from the laparoscopic surgery. Her fertility was not affected and she was in great shape to get pregnant.

Still, even with a clean bill of health there were some preliminary steps to be taken. I explained genetic screening to the couple and offered them our panel of blood tests for genetic diagnosis, best to be done at this time. I gave them my printed information for pregnant women, which contains answers to the most common questions and recommendations for nutrition and exercise, and describes normal changes in pregnancy. I began Diana on prenatal vitamins to be sure she had high levels in her body before she was pregnant. I explained the normal changes in pregnancy, what to expect, and what was not normal. I answered all the questions she and Greg had. Then I sent Diana for the standard blood tests for prenatal screening.

All Diana’s tests were normal. She and Greg followed my advice about stopping the birth control pill and switched to condoms until they were ready to try for pregnancy. Five months later, they conceived. The following nine mon

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Excerpted from Miscarriage, Medicine and Miracles: Everything You Need to Know about Miscarriage by Bruce Young, Amy Zavatto
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