Only after I became obsessed with Makena did I rethink my own history, and the tumor we always thought was a random fluke. After the traumatic preterm birth of my sister and the death of her twin in 1973, my parents were relieved when I was born full term and…

This is the dark stuff, just before the light. Then comes growth. I don’t think midwives knew quite what we were in for when the World Health Organization declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. I, for one, imagined it would be a relatively easy year for…

The time for policy action is now. As we think about how to rebuild from whatever depths the COVID-19 crisis will bring us, I would like to propose Medicare for All Pregnancies as a policy priority. Here’s why. Even before COVID-19, the need to fix maternity care in the United…

The research is weak. The industry is corrupt. And there are alternatives that work. I recently got curious about what ever happened with Makena, the once controversial but now mainstream progesterone drug that promises to prevent preterm birth. My curiosity turned out to be timely. …

For years it has been my full time job to think about how to transform and improve maternity care, so my only challenge when deciding to March for Moms this Mother’s Day is which of the myriad possible things to put on my sign and t-shirt. But if you’re new…

My parents *almost* didn’t have maternity coverage with their first pregnancy. If they hadn’t, it would have ruined them financially, and there’s a chance our family would have been in poverty, at least temporarily. There’s also a chance my sister wouldn’t have survived her birth. But they had insurance, so…

When my daughter was in 5th grade, her response to the growing conflict around her was to retreat from the drama, stay quiet, and read. For most of that year she was reading and rereading The Hunger Games. I knew nothing about The Hunger Games except that kids were fighting…

A lot has been said about the fact that we are on the brink of electing the first woman to be President. But I have been thinking more about electing the first mother. Motherhood can be defined in as many different ways as there are people on this planet. But…

Almost any way we look at it, maternal and infant health outcomes in the United States are far worse than they should be. Our infant mortality rate is on par with Poland, our maternal death rate just above Iran. We’re one of just eight countries in the world with rising…