I am not a black mother. I am white. I am a mother. I am also a pediatrician. Every day I work with mothers and their babies—black, brown, and white, as a newborn hospitalist on a busy, urban maternity unit. I know firsthand that the postpartum period …
Many people looking in on the world of research have perceptions of brilliant minds at work, rapidly putting forth groundbreaking ideas. While they’re not entirely wrong, I discovered that this arena of fascinating new discoveries is not always so rap…
An excerpt from It’s All In The Delivery: Improving Healthcare Starting With A Single Conversation. On that night when the desperate call came to pick up the critically ill baby with MAS, I felt very fortunate that Dr. Cunningham was my supervisor. Whe…
The recent pandemic has confined people all over the world to the indoors to try to keep the virus from spreading. Older adults have been the most commonly affected age group with the virus, but more recently, a strange presentation of COVID-19 has bee…
Recently, I was part of a virtual panel discussing ways to help kids and teens manage their digital technology use. The audience, parents from around the world, felt blind-sided about how all of this extra time at home has led to significant increases …
“I used to only have to deal with him touching me after school — now it’s all the time.” “She’s doing drugs more because she lost her job last week; she started hitting me again.” As a pediatrician-in-training, IR…
The devastation inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic both in terms of health and the world economy will continue to be discussed for quite some time. Large numbers of our neighbors have been impacted in these ways. What has also been just as profound …
A few weeks ago, while I was still seeing a full schedule of patients and the crisis was just beginning, I asked myself, “How can I reach this little person on the exam table in front of me?” It was our first meeting. He was deaf and partia…
Sunlight creeps through the living room blinds. We have taken to sleeping here now on the giant sectional sofa. Most days, there is no reason to set an alarm. The dog stirs, moves from where he was nestled against one child to stretch out alongside ano…
Where are the kids? What are they doing? Are they learning anything? My stomach grows heavy, and my throat clogs. Are they eating? Are they safe? Good Lord, I hope that they are safe. As a pediatrician and as a mother of two, I regularly scan news arti…
