Children born to mothers over 40 are less likely to have accidents or need hospital care and more likely to have been vaccinated early, as compared to those of younger women, a study has found. Researchers at the Institute of Child Health, University College London and Birkbeck College, London, said their findings showed older mothers could make better parents. Read more at:
Is it a good idea to have children after 40? Read more at:
by Dr. Barb Depree, M.D.
When was the last time your doctor asked you how your sex life was going?
I thought so.
In a new study, a team from the University of Chicago surveyed over a thousand OB/GYNs about whether they talk with their patients about sex. The results may not surprise you, but they won’t reassure you, either. […]
by Peg O'Neil, M.D.
“I can do it myself!” says my six-year-old, as he swings his leg up the high bottom branch of the cherry tree in our front yard. I have just given him a barely perceptible, gentle nudge to help him get where he wants to be, but it’s clear that he doesn’t want this. I need to back off. What he really wants at this point is for me to be there, to cheer him on and observe his triumph. […]
by Valerie Gillies
“Something came out from my heart into my throat and then into my eyes” – Jean Rhys
I always excelled at staring contests. It’s a cultivated skill. Without too much effort, I can turn everything off, blank out, and suspend time. It works great for balancing yoga poses. And I have to say that even though it’s probably not the optimal way to approach the milestones of life, it works for me in its own crooked way. […]
by Dr. Barb Depree, M.D.
The provider-patient relationship is delicate and fraught with opportunity for misunderstanding. On one hand, you have a busy professional in a somewhat risky, stressful profession who is pressed for time and is trained to speak a foreign language—medical mumbo-jumbo. […]
by Rachel Snyder
More than a feeling and deeper than any emotion, joy is a pure state of being. Joy is holding your child to your breast for the very first time and locking lovers’ eyes. Joy is being in love and sleeping in the sunshine and running down a mountain path with the swiftness of a deer in the springtime. Joy expands your heart and opens your soul until you know, really know, that death is simply the turning of another page. Joy is snowflakes and slipping on the ice and getting up so you can slip all over again and never even feeling the cold. Living in joy doesn’t mean putting on a happy face. It means that joy is at the core of who you are and always have been. Joy is strong enough to carry you through the darkness and the pain into a place where joy still resides in ultimate measure. Seek to find joy and let joy fill your life.
Dear Reader: Today is the the last day of school for my two youngest children. Tomorrow, they will begin the long summer wait for the next school year to start. This cyclical passing of time is short-lived, I know, punctuated by those all-familiar rituals which change as they (and I) age. This essay is in homage to them and the reality that time is truly fleeting…
Today, I waved to both my daughter and son as they rode away on the school bus. It was the silly kind of wave – two arms flailing, and me jumping up and down as if I was flagging down a passing ship. I made the heart sign to them and blew them both a kiss. We all continued waving until the bus was out of sight. Walking back to my house, I had a lump in my throat. I am so sad. The times they are a’changing… […]
by Phyllis Goldberg Ph.D. and Rosemary Lichtman Ph.D.
Have you noticed that your kids are becoming more attached than ever to television, video games and texting? And the season doesn’t seem to matter. During summer, with more free time and fewer structured activities, it’s easy to turn to electronics for stimulation. In winter, the shorter daylight hours and long, dark evenings allow less time for outdoor play. […]
Andrea Lynn
Father’s Day has never been a big deal in our house. My girls are too young to know the occasion exists, since they are still at home and sheltered from both Hallmark and earnest preschool teachers. But my legion of Single Mothers By Choice friends all have tales to tell about school projects mislabeled to “daddy” and efforts to substitute variations of grandpa and uncle on hand-written cards and macaroni photo frames. It is an annual discussion that is sometimes painful but mostly handled in stride. I’m pretty sure Jewish kids have more trouble with Christmas than fatherless children have trouble with Father’s Day, though perhaps I’m in denial. […]
by Dr. Barb Depree, M.D.
Dr. Sheryl Kingsberg is a MiddlesexMD advisor and a psychologist specializing in women’s sexual health. She talks to physicians a lot about why it’s important to at least ask about a patient’s sexual health and maybe take her sexual health history. So she’s very familiar with the view from the physician’s side of the desk when it comes to talking about sex with patients. […]