Exercising in the pool has long been a favourite of pregnant women, as the buoyancy of the water takes the weight of tired hips and knees, resulting in a rare and relieving feeling of weightlessness. In addition to the cardiovascular benefits of swimming and...

Living in the Yukon, where the seasonal variations in light are drastic, my patients and I are very aware of the extent to which light exposure affects melatonin concentrations and sleep quality. Melatonin is the biological response to darkness – levels increase at night,...

In my last post I flagged promising new research linking decreased fatty liver in adult males to their mothers’ consumption of fish oil during pregnancy. Now a second study focuses on supporting mom’s long-term liver health – through her breastfeeding. Based on their work with...

Supplementing a pregnant mother’s diet with essential fatty acids – particularly DHA – holds a host of benefits for the developing fetus, such as brain and eye development, and even reducing neural tube defects, as I’ve mentioned before in this post. New research from Spain’s Universidad...

Any vaginal infection in pregnancy is concerning, and bacterial vaginosis (BV) in pregnancy puts women at particularly increased risk for premature rupture of membranes (when the bag of waters breaks earlier than is optimal), chorioamnionitis (intra-amniotic infection), spontaneous preterm birth (baby being delivered before 37...

To the cheers of many health practitioners, Canada’s new and much improved Food Guide boldly recommends that Canadians of all ages and stages “replace sugary drinks with water” as their “drink of choice.” Of course, the health benefits of such a shift are clear...

A few weeks ago I wrote this post on the importance of supplementing smoking-exposed pregnant women with methylated folate (B9) and B12 to reduce the risk of recurrent miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes. Now, research from the Oregon Health and Science University has highlighted another important...

Optimal weight gain in pregnancy is a hot topic – arguments abound on risks of gaining too little in pregnancy, and conversely on the risks of gaining too much. I generally encourage my pregnant patients to follow a whole-foods, low-glycemic diet during pregnancy – and...

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a devastating experience that can leave women seeking answers to identify the cause of their miscarriages. While endocrine factors such as thyroid and progesterone levels are increasingly being recognized as important factors in RPL (as I address in this blog...

The 2019 Canadian Exercise Guidelines are just out, and as expected they are highly supportive of exercising throughout pregnancy – including aerobic exercise, strength training, and pelvic floor training.  Some important highlights from this year’s consensus statement by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada:...