'OB/GYN Clinics at Swedish ' posts

No matter how many times you’ve been through it, expecting, having, and raising a baby are truly some of life’s biggest challenges. Making that adventure a little less stressful is what The Lytle Center for Pregnancy & Newborns will be all about when it opens in July 2013 at Swedish/First Hill.

It will be the “go-to” place for moms and dads (and brothers and sisters and grandmas and grandpas) expecting a new baby. In this warm, welcoming space, new families will take classes, gather support from each other, get help with lactation, purchase necessities, and take advantage of a new mom and well-baby exam a few days after birth to make sure everything’s going just right.

Here are just a few of the services that will be available at The Lytle Center:

SEATTLE, Feb. 12, 2003 - Joy Zia, M.D., who is a physician with Swedish OB/GYN Ballard, took part in a discussion today on KUOW Radio (94.9 FM; NPR) about the pros and cons of at-home and hospital births.

I am an OB/GYN who has been in practice now for 20 years in Seattle. My early training had a strong emphasis on vaginal reconstructive surgery, but I was always frustrated with our poor success rate in repair of pelvic prolapsed and urinary incontinence. As my practice has evolved I have continued to focus on urinary incontinence and new techniques for treating pelvic prolapse. In the recent years there have been some very exciting new changes.

Urinary incontinence in women

Many women are bothered by urinary incontinence. Recent studies have shown that this is worse if you have had a vaginal delivery, but some of women have either wide pelvic openings or poor tissue elasticity that can lead to this without ever having had a vaginal delivery. This is an embarrassing problem and can be very inconvenient, with many women carrying a change of clothes or wearing daily pads. In the elderly this can lead to slips or falls and even broken hips. For women who have had children, this may keep them from exercising or playing with their children for fear of leakage. Many women suffer in silence because this is too embarrassing to share even with their doctors.

Today we have several ways ....

Umbilical cord blood banking is a procedure where your OB takes some of the blood (and now tissue) from the placenta and umbilical cord after your baby is born and the cord has been cut. You may never have thought about what we do with that stuff.

What happens to your baby's umbilical cord?

In the past, it has usually been discarded as medical waste, although some women want to take it home with them. Over the last two decades medical advances have been developed in which the cells from that blood can be used to treat several diseases. The cells have unique characteristics that allow them to change into a multitude of different cell types (called pluripotent cells.) The idea is that some children and adults with certain genetic abnormalities or certain cancers can benefit from these cells. The cells can be grown to replenish the normal cells or treat abnormal cells.

The options for umbilical cord banking are divided primarily into what’s called public and private cord blood banking.

Private cord banking

Private cord banking is just what it sounds like: we collect the blood at the time of your delivery and you send it to a business that processes it and stores it for you. The cost of this varies currently from somewhere between $2000 and $3000 for initial processing and from about $120 and $300 per year to store it. In this case, you are storing the cells for yourself and your family.

Public cord banking

Alternatively, public cord banking is something anyone who delivers at certain hospitals has the opportunity to do. There is a public cord blood system that has been growing since 1990 that is similar to the blood bank and is used for individuals who need the blood due to illness or injury.

At Swedish, all patients can donate cord blood to the Puget Sound Blood Center. The cord blood collected for this bank is available to all individuals based on need. The cord blood collected is not specifically available to the individual who donated it. We are happy to collect blood from all families, but are finding increased needs in patients who are ethnic minorities or a mixed race couple. The cord blood also can be directed to Fred Hutchinson Research Center for ongoing research regarding current and future treatments.

Isn't cord blood banking controversial?

There are ...

SEATTLE, Oct. 15, 2012 - If you’re pregnant or thinking about having a baby, finding the right provider is a pretty good place to start this incredible journey. When you come to OB Speed Dating, you’ll get the chance to meet several Obstetricians and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) who deliver at Swedish/Ballard's Family Childbirth Center and get to know them in a fun, low-key environment.

Self breast exams: to do or not to do?

Remember when there were monthly emails you could sign up for to remind you and your friends to do your self breast exams at home? Remember seeing the news anchors talking about their monthly self breast exams in an attempt to remind you to do your breast “due diligence?” What happened to self breast exams and are they still important?

Initially, self breast exams were recommended as a screening tool to help early detection of breast cancer. Unfortunately long-term studies have not confirmed that they actually live up to their hype. Two large studies looking at over 200,000 women in both Russia and China didn’t show any difference in breast cancer mortality after 15 years between the women who were performing routine self exams and those who were not. In fact, the women that were practicing self exams found more lumps and underwent more biopsies for benign reasons. Reviews of several other studies failed to show a benefit of regular breast self-examinations including no benefit of early diagnosis, or reductions in deaths or stage at diagnosis. Hence in 2009, the US Preventative Services Task Force advised that clinicians no longer recommend routine self breast examination as a screening tool for breast cancer detection.

Even though you don’t need to be doing a monthly self exam, you should...

World Breastfeeding Week is an annual celebration held around the world to generate public awareness and support for breastfeeding families. And, in honor of this special week, Swedish/Issaquah Pediatrics and OB are hosting a community celebration – and you’re invited.

Join us on Wednesday, Aug. 1 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. for a fun-filled day of activities. Raising a healthy, happy baby is one of the most rewarding things you’ll do. And, it doesn’t have to feel overwhelming.

We’re bringing together an impressive group of individuals and vendors to provide you and your family with information about health and education services. Our event will also feature:

• Door Prizes
• Story Telling
• Teddy Bear Clinic
• Massages
• The Leche Lounge
• Live Music
• Yoga
• “Ask-the-Doc” Booth

Event Location:
Swedish/Issaquah
751 N.E. Blakely Drive
Issaquah, WA 98029
2nd Floor Conference Center