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In order to understand a fetal echocardiogram, it’s critical to start with what it’s used to detect. In the United States, congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect, impacting nearly 1 percent of (or about 40,000) births every year.
The most common type of CHD is a ventricular septal defect (VSD). Close to 25 percent of infants with CHD have a critical defect, and these infants typically require surgery or some other kind of intervention in their first year of life.
A fetal...
Images courtesy of Christopher & Riki Graves
Military life definitely has its ups and downs. I’ve been through many of these with my wife, Riki, while active in the Texas Army National Guard. Raising one child at home, our son, was a fairly simple task. Ben was born without an issue, but our second child, Juliana, was a very different story.
During Riki’s second pregnancy, I was working out of Brownwood and commuting 330 miles to and from Corpus Christi. Riki was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of her pregnancy, and she soon began receiving treatment in Houston. During our local 20-week ultrasound appointment,...
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We live in Houston, where the weather often seems brutally hot year-round. It’s important to protect ourselves by recognizing all the ways heat can impact the body as we experience record-breaking temperatures this summer; but equally important to address some common misconceptions, specifically regarding gynecological health.
Nobody particularly loves feeling sweaty and sticky all over, but the bottom line is that heat, or any change in season, will not affect gynecological health or cause changes to the vagina. The vagina is an...
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We’ve all heard the sayings, “breast milk is the best milk,” “it’s the ultimate baby food,” and “breast milk is liquid gold.” Experts agree; breast milk is the gold standard for infant nutrition. It provides your baby with the calories, fats and nutrients needed for growth, and also secures important immunities to protect from illness. No other infant feeding substitute can measure up to breast milk.
If breast milk is the “foundation of life” and so great for my baby, why is he so fussy and gassy? Is he allergic to my milk? Could he...
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“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have” - Franz Kafka
I think this quote can be used in a wide variety of circumstances, but, to me, it aptly sums up just why every family expecting a newborn should have a baby urgent medical plan, or BUMP, established ahead of labor and delivery.
Even in the most “normal” of pregnancies, unexpected complications can arise and cause lots of anxiety. This anxiety can be minimized through a little bit of thoughtful planning. Most babies are delivered without...
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