Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

One Man's Pregnancy Story, Yvonne S. Marquez, Paige A. Perez

Capstones

Pregnancy is a challenging time for anyone. For LGBTQ people there are unique obstacles that make it especially difficult to navigate a medical system that was not built for them. Finn Schubert is trans and six months pregnant. He’s loving the experience but stressed by insurance claim denials, concerns for his safety, and medical incompetence.

This capstone project includes a 20-minute documentary, text, and a photo essay.

Food Restriction And Body Image Distortion In Pregnant Mothers: Outcomes For Exposed Children, Kathryn M. Dana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Developmental trajectories in the growing child do not originate at birth. Rather, critical periods may exist in pregnancy, during which the determinants of malnutrition are especially vulnerable to the effects of stress and other complications. Prenatal malnutrition has been consistently associated with negative consequences for the growth, development, and overall physical and mental health of affected offspring in both human and animal models. While most available literature on human prenatal malnutrition comes from famine research, there is some evidence that restrictive eating disorders in pregnant women may be associated with similar outcomes.

Hypotheses: We hypothesize that prenatal exposure to …

The Role Of Agency In Early And Unwanted Adolescent Pregnancy: A Multi Country Analysis, Katharine Mccarthy

Dissertations and Theses

Purpose. The agency to decide one’s reproductive future is paramount, yet an estimated 75 percent of adolescent girls in the United States (U.S.) and 49 percent of those in low and middle-income countries experience mistimed or unwanted pregnancy. This dissertation characterized empirical representations of agency over the course of adolescence and investigated the relationship between agency and early and unwanted pregnancy and childbearing using data from three countries (India, Zambia and the U.S.).

Methods. Using latent class and latent transition analysis, multi-dimensional profiles of adolescent agency were assessed using data from: (1) a state representative cross-sectional cohort study of adolescents …

Postpartum Pains, Lakea Youngblood

Capstones

The Academy once again came under fire. This time for banning a commercial that advertised a postpartum support. People all over the country became enraged. The Academy seemed more friendly to movies about murder than postpartum, in alignment with the sexist ideas that have been pervasive in this country since its foundations. This short documentary pushes back against this narrative and the silence around postpartum by showing the realities of it through a woman’s journey.

The film is a personal documentary about myself. After having my first child, I found myself traumatized and scarred by the pains of postpartum. Because …

Why Doula Services Should Become An Essential Health Benefit In New York State, Jalisha Hanshaw, Amy White

Publications and Research

Doulas are birth workers who assist expecting mothers through pregnancy, birth and postpartum using holistic techniques. Techniques include: prenatal yoga, birth affirmations and induction acupuncture. Doulas are underrated healthcare providers who deserve the same respect as clinical and non-clinical providers. Doulas are well-rounded alternative care providers who focus on mental, emotional, and physical well being of mothers. Also, they know special alternative medical techniques that prevent mothers from maternal mortality among other negative health outcomes. The amount of time and effort doulas perform with expecting mothers are equal or more than the average medical healthcare provider and should be a …

Women Are Being Cut During Childbirth Without Need Or Consent, Molly Cora Enking

Capstones

An episiotomy, a surgical cut used to enlarge the vaginal opening during childbirth, can be extremely painful, hard to recover from and can increase the risk of severe complications. In 2018, episiotomies are rarely necessary, but at some U.S. hospitals they happen much more than they should. And in the course reporting this story, New York City News Service found that it is common for doctors to cut women without the mother’s consent.

https://medium.com/@mollyenking/women-are-being-cut-during-childbirth-without-need-or-consent-7677de7eddae

Linking Hostile/Helpless Maternal Representations In Pregnancy And Later Child Protection Involvement: A Pilot Study, Madeleine Terry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present pilot study examined whether there are reliable indices in the narratives of pregnant women that can be used to identify child abuse and neglect potential before the birth of the child. The Hostile/Helpless (HH) Classification system (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1995-2005), which detects mental states associated with trauma, disturbances in early attachment, and severe pathology, was adapted for use with the Pregnancy Interview (PI), a semi-structured clinical interview (Slade, 2003) that assesses a woman's emotional experience of pregnancy, and quality of her developing relationship with her baby. The study sample was drawn from a replication study of the Minding …

Maternal Choline Supplementation Alters Fetal Growth Patterns In A Mouse Model Of Placental Insufficiency, Julia H. King, Sze Ting (Cecilia) Kwan, Jian Yan, Kevin C. Klatt, Xinyin Jiang, Mark S. Roberson, Marie A. Caudill

Publications and Research

Impairments in placental development can adversely affect pregnancy outcomes. The bioactive nutrient choline may mitigate some of these impairments, as suggested by data in humans, animals, and human trophoblasts. Herein, we investigated the effects of maternal choline supplementation (MCS) on parameters of fetal growth in a Dlx3+/− (distal-less homeobox 3) mouse model of placental insufficiency. Dlx3+/− female mice were assigned to 1X (control), 2X, or 4X choline intake levels during gestation. Dams were sacrificed at embryonic days E10.5, 12.5, 15.5, and 18.5. At E10.5, placental weight, embryo weight, and placental efficiency were higher in 4X versus 1X choline. Higher concentrations …

Reproductive History Before And After Hiv Diagnosis: A Cross-Sectional Study In Hiv-Positive Women In Spain, Victoria Hernando, Belen Alejos, Marta Montero, M Jesús Pérez-Elias, José Ramón Blanco, Livia Giner, Juan Luis Gómez-Sirvent, Jose Antonio Iribarren, Enrique Bernal, Francisco Bolumar

Publications and Research

The aim of this study is to examine the reproductive history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women, before and after HIV diagnosis, to describe the characteristics of women with pregnancies after HIV diagnosis, and to assess the prevalence of mother-to-child transmission.

A cross-sectional study was performed among women within reproductive ages (18–49) selected from the cohort in the Spanish AIDS Research Network (CoRIS). A descriptive analysis of the pregnancy outcomes was made according to women’s serostatus at the moment of pregnancy and association of women’s characteristics with having pregnancy after HIV diagnosis was evaluated using logistic regression models.

Overall, 161 …

Maternal Characteristics And Clinical Diagnoses Influence Obstetrical Outcomes In Indonesia, Asri Adisasmita, Carl V. Smith, Ayman A.E. El-Mohandes, Poppy Elvira Deviany, Judith J. Ryon, Michele Kiely, Quail Rogers-Bloch, Reginald F. Gipson

Publications and Research

This Indonesian study evaluates associations between near-miss status/death with maternal demographic, health care characteristics, and obstetrical complications, comparing results using retrospective and prospective data. The main outcome measures were obstetric conditions and socio-economic factors to predict near-miss/death. We abstracted all obstetric admissions (1,358 retrospective and 1,240 prospective) from two district hospitals in East Java, Indonesia between 4/1/2009 and 5/15/2010. Prospective data added socio-economic status, access to care and referral patterns. Reduced logistic models were constructed, and multivariate analyses used to assess association of risk variables to outcome. Using multivariate analysis, variables associated with risk of near-miss/death include postpartum hemorrhage (retrospective …

Rationale, Design, And Method Of The Diabetes & Women’S Health Study – A Study Of Long-Term Health Implications Of Glucose Intolerance In Pregnancy And Their Determinants, Cuilin Zhang, Frank B. Hu, Sjurdur F. Olsen, Allan Vaag, Robert Gore-Langton, Jorge E. Chavarro, Wei Bao, Edwina Yeung, Katherine Bowers, Louise Groth Grunnet, Seth Sherman, Michele Kiely, Marin Strøm, Susanne Hansen, Aiyi Liu, James Mills, Ruzong Fan

Publications and Research

Women who develop gestational diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy are at substantially increased risk for type 2 diabetes and comorbidities after pregnancy. Little is known about the role of genetic factors and their interactions with environmental factors in determining the transition from gestational diabetes mellitus to overt type 2 diabetes mellitus. These critical data gaps served as the impetus for this Diabetes & Women’s Health study with the overall goal of investigating genetic factors and their interactions with risk factors amenable to clinical or public health interventions in relation to the transition of gestational diabetes mellitus to …

The Association Between A Medical History Of Depression And Gestational Diabetes In A Large Multi-Ethnic Cohort In The United States, Katherine Bowers, S. Katherine Laughon, Sungduk Kim, Sunni L. Mumford, Jennifer Brite, Michele Kiely, Cuilin Zhang

Publications and Research

Background: Both major depression and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are prevalent among women of reproductive age. Our objective was to determine whether a medical history of depression is related to subsequent development of GDM.

Methods: The Consortium on Safe Labor was a US retrospective cohort study of 228 562 births between 2002 and 2008. Exclusion criteria for the present analysis included multiple gestation pregnancies (n = 5059), pre-existing diabetes (n = 12 771), deliveries(n = 395), site GDM prevalence (

Results: The final analytic population included 121 260 women contributing 128 295 pregnancies, of which 5606 were affected by GDM. …

Smoking Cessation And Relapse Among Pregnant African-American Smokers In Washington, Dc, Ayman El-Mohandes, M. Nabil El-Khorazaty, Michele Kieley, Marie G. Gantz

Publications and Research

Smoking is the single most preventable cause of perinatal morbidity. This study examines smoking behaviors during pregnancy in a high risk population of African Americans. The study also examines risk factors associated with smoking behaviors and cessation in response to a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention. This study is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial addressing multiple risks during pregnancy. Five hundred African-American Washington, DC residents who reported smoking in the 6 months preceding pregnancy were randomized to a CBT intervention. Psycho-social and behavioral data were collected. Self-reported smoking and salivary cotinine levels were measured prenatally …

Very Preterm Birth Is Reduced In Women Receiving An Integrated Behavioral Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Ayman El-Mohandes, Michele Kiely, Marie G. Gantz, M. Nabil El-Khorazaty

Publications and Research

Background This study examines whether an integrated behavioral intervention with proven efficacy in reducing psycho-behavioral risks (smoking, environmental tobacco smoke exposure (ETSE), depression, and intimate partner violence (IPV)) in African-Americans is associated with improved pregnancy outcomes

Methods A randomized controlled trial targeting risks during pregnancy was conducted in the District of Columbia. African-American women were recruited if reporting at least one of the risks mentioned above. Randomization to intervention or usual care was site and risk specific. Sociodemographic, health risk and pregnancy outcome data were collected. Data on 819 women, and their singleton live born infants were analyzed using an …

Experiences With Infant Mortality As Reported By Middle Class Black Women In Their Own Words, Lisa Paisley-Cleveland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black Middle-Class Women and Pregnancy Loss: A Qualitative Inquiry is the first qualitative research case study of its kind on Black Infant Mortality (BIM) to focus on a target group of black American-born middle-class professional married women who have all lived through the experience of infant loss. This target group allows Lisa Paisley-Cleveland to examine the BIM phenomenon outside the poverty paradigm and issues attached to teenage pregnancy, as well as to explore contributing factors attached to the persistent black and white disparity in infant mortality rates, which according to CDC’s January 2013 report are 12.40 and 5.35 respectively.

This …