After a successful (albeit sudden and fast) birth at 36 in a traditional hospital setting, our fellow OB/GYN Dr. Amber Warmsley went on a type of personal and professional journey where she discovered something unique about home births and the way they're understood in our country. As she prepared to have her second child, the research she had done and the professionals she had learned from helped convince her to try a home birth, which she describes in today's episode.

Dr. Fox interviews Lauren Abrams, a certified Nurse Midwife who has been practicing midwifery since 1993. In this episode, they discuss the path to becoming a midwife, how midwives and obstetricians can work together, and the different experiences a patient might have depending on where and how they choose to give birth.

Much of what we talk about on this podcast comes from a professional's perspective: the clinical interpretation of tests and what that means for women who need specific care. However, we relish the opportunity today to get the perspective of someone who works more personally with patients in the ultrasound room. Sara, one of the sonographers at Carnegie Imaging, joins us today to talk about her journey into sonography and how her role shapes the pregnancy experience for her patients.

Board-certified obesity medicine specialist and brother of Dr. Nathan Fox joins us for today's episode about weight management and treatment of obesity. Dr. David Fox helps people in his general practice understand the medical implications of obesity and works to destigmatize the societal shame surrounding what, at the end of the day, is a problem that can and should be treated as any other medical risk factor.

In part two of Jamie’s High Risk Birth Story, she covers her experience with a lumpectomy and C-section recovery, followed by chemotherapy, and the struggles of being a new mother while going through cancer treatment.

Jamie tells her story of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis late in her pregnancy and complications from preeclampsia. After her diagnosis, Jamie explains how she and her medical team planned for a lumpectomy, delivery, and egg freezing, and her experience learning she couldn’t carry more children after treatment.

There are different types of concerns that can arise when performing genetic testing; to use an analogy, there could be large paragraphs of text that accidentally repeat themselves, which alters the meaning of a chapter in a book, or there could be single letter changes in important sentences that change the meaning of an important thought. Our geneticist, Dr. Tamar Goldwaser, talks today about those latter changes: single gene mutations, and how we are able to detect them during pregnancy.

It's always great to talk with MFM's geneticist, Dr. Tamar Goldwaser, to learn about the fastest growing area of study in healthcare, genetics. In part one of this episode, Dr. Fox asks Dr. Goldwaser to describe the differences in genetic and prenatal tests that can be performed to learn more about a baby's genetic predispositions and potential disorders prior to birth. There are many different types that reveal different pieces of information, so hearing it from the doctor who will interpret your results is always beneficial.

So much of caring for patients with chronic conditions that can interfere with pregnancy and childbirth is personal, which is why today we talk with Zehava, a listener of the podcast, who shares her personal journey through pregnancy with ulcerative colitis, in the midst of COVID protocols in hospitals around the country. Although she delivered her son at just over one pound and 30 weeks, both mother and baby are doing well.

Dr. Nathan Fox continues his conversation with his father, Dr. Jacob Fox, as they define terms around memory loss and dementia to help people understand the factors that put people at risk for cognitive decline. Cognitive decline affects everyone differently, and neurologists have come a long way in helping people prevent the early onset of dementia in the past few decades.