As part of our continuing local health education series with GBMC, we welcome Dr. Aneesha Varrey to discuss modern childbirth and the many ways for everyone in a mother’s life to support her pregnancy – before and after the baby comes – with all of the family excitement and love.
Dr. Aneesha Varrey from GBMC discussed modern childbirth and support for pregnant women. She emphasized the advancements in prenatal care, including frequent ultrasounds and the use of social media for information. Routine visits are typically every four weeks until 28 weeks, then every two weeks until 36 weeks, and weekly thereafter. Dr. Varrey highlighted the importance of emotional support, especially for first-time parents and those with limited family support. She also noted the significant improvements in neonatal care, with premature babies now having a higher chance of survival. GBMC offers postpartum doulas and collaborative care consults to assist new mothers.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Follow up with Dr. Aneesha Varrey and GBMC regarding the speaker’s own healthcare needs, such as scheduling a colonoscopy.
- [ ] Encourage pregnant women to download the GBMC app to stay informed about their pregnancy.
- [ ] Recommend GBMC’s postpartum doula and collaborative care services to new mothers who may need additional support.
Introduction and Partnership with GBMC
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning the partnership with GBMC and the focus on education.
- Nestor congratulates himself on making a colonoscopy appointment as part of the GBMC healthcare partnership.
- Nestor welcomes Dr. Aneesha Varrey, an obstetrician and gynecologist, to discuss modern childbirth and support for pregnant women.
- Nestor shares his personal connection to GBMC, mentioning a friend who was a nurse there and his own experiences with preemie babies.
Modern Advances in Childbirth
- Nestor and Dr. Varrey discuss the advancements in modern childbirth, including the use of sonograms and social media.
- Dr. Varrey highlights the benefits of social media for pregnant women, providing them with access to information and support.
- The conversation touches on the importance of accurate information and the challenges of dealing with misinformation.
- Dr. Varrey mentions the transformation of ultrasounds, with 3D ultrasounds becoming common and providing detailed images of the baby.
Routine and Support During Pregnancy
- Nestor asks about the routine visits during pregnancy and the support grandparents and partners can provide.
- Dr. Varrey explains the typical visit schedule for a routine pregnancy, including monthly visits until 28 weeks, biweekly visits until 36 weeks, and weekly visits until delivery.
- The discussion emphasizes the importance of routine and the natural phenomenon of pregnancy, while acknowledging potential complications.
- Dr. Varrey advises on how grandparents and partners can support pregnant women, including helping with chores and providing emotional support.
Challenges and Emotional Support for Pregnant Women
- Dr. Varrey discusses the emotional challenges pregnant women face, including pressure from social media and the need for support.
- Nestor shares his own experiences with morning sickness and the importance of understanding and supporting pregnant women.
- Dr. Varrey highlights the role of doulas and collaborative care in providing emotional and practical support to new mothers.
- The conversation touches on the importance of postpartum care and the challenges of balancing work and family responsibilities.
Postpartum Care and Resources at GBMC
- Nestor and Dr. Varrey discuss the importance of postpartum care and the resources available at GBMC.
- Dr. Varrey explains the role of doulas in providing support to new mothers, including help with breastfeeding and household chores.
- The conversation highlights the collaborative care consults available for women who are struggling and need additional support.
- Dr. Varrey emphasizes the importance of early identification and treatment of postpartum issues, including anxiety and depression.
Advancements in Medical Care for Premature Babies
- Nestor asks about the advancements in medical care for premature babies and the impact of early identification and treatment.
- Dr. Varrey explains that medical care has improved significantly, with premature babies now having a higher chance of survival and better outcomes.
- The conversation touches on the importance of early intervention and the role of technology in supporting premature babies.
- Dr. Varrey shares a personal anecdote about the progress in medical care, highlighting the success stories of premature babies.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
- Nestor thanks Dr. Varrey for the informative discussion and shares his appreciation for the education provided.
- Dr. Varrey reiterates the importance of support and care for pregnant women and new mothers.
- Nestor expresses his excitement about the upcoming football season and the continued partnership with GBMC.
- The show concludes with Nestor wishing his neighbor a happy birthday and expressing his support for her pregnancy.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
childbirth, GBMC, modern pregnancy, ultrasounds, social media, perinatal care, postpartum care, emotional support, preemie babies, routine visits, doulas, breastfeeding, maternal health, prenatal education, healthcare partnership
SPEAKERS
Dr. Aneesha Varrey, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 towston, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively, getting us in through 27 years of all of this stuff. And we got football season, and we’re getting baseball playoffs, getting ready to go as well. We have done a partnership here with GBMC, and I’m so proud of it, because they’re right down the road. My radio station has been here in Towson all these years, our 27th anniversary. And as part of that, not just the injury report we do with the with the Luke, but but really trying to educate ourselves about all sorts of things so much so. And I know any doctor, including even someone that specializes in perinatal care and obstac obstetrics. I want to make some obstetrician and gynecology. Can even appreciate that I made my colonoscopy appointment. So I just want to congratulate myself this week on behalf of my GBMC healthcare partnership, as we welcome in Doctor Anisha very see week to week. Now this is not one this week that’s going to apply to me, Doc, but it could apply to women, women in my life, not my wife, because we’re not making any babies. But thank God, there are people making babies, and folks like you were there to help them. Good day to you. Doc, great to have you on.
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 01:17
It’s my pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 01:20
I for years and years, and I had a friend many, many years ago who was a nurse at GBMC. And I’ve known all of my life about free me babies. My stepbrother was born very small. My son had relative normal, but I see folks who struggle with this, and I’ve always known about the special, special care at GBMC. I think maybe a lifetime of living here and being a Baltimore County resident, voter business, you just know about this, and you hope that no one you know needs that. Normal births. You do all of that, and healthy babies. You do everything over there. And I’m sure you’ve seen it all, but, you know, I have so many questions, and I guess just coming at it, it is sort of a famous hospital for making babies, right?
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 02:09
That is true, and delivering them and taking care of moms, yes.
Nestor Aparicio 02:13
Well, what does that entail in the modern era, that when I see someone, and I have lately I see as many of the blue and pink balloons when they’re making the babies, but then immediately I start seeing sonograms. I start the modern the beauty of birth in the modern era is incredible on social media, and I think just how much information people can share and how much science has come a long way to let people have better pregnancies, better births, better experiences, and make healthier children, right?
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 02:49
Yeah, exactly, yes. I think it is. It is advanced a lot. So there is a lot of good in all the information that the women have now when they come to me, I I love that they have their tiktoks and Instagrams and they have their social you know, there are a lot of doctors also on social media who give a lot of information, a lot of nurses, doulas, and so when women are coming to their appointments, they’re very well equipped with lot of information. Like, they’re like, I read about this, or I watched a video about this. So that’s really nice. But, you know, everything has a good and bad and so the good information is great, great. But then the bad information I’m also having to, like, spend more time fending off, saying, you know, well, no, don’t do this. That’s not medically good for the baby and the pregnancy. But I think it’s really good, because when a woman is, you know, even if there are all kinds of women in different places in the world, and even with social media, they’re able to get all this information, even if they don’t have immediate, you know, people around them to give them this information. So it’s really good as a conversation starter with the doctors to be like, I heard this or I watched this video, and, yeah, the ultrasounds are just, they have gone through a huge transformation. I’m sure when you had your kids, you were like, probably got one or two ultrasounds. Now, you know, moms are coming, and they really want 3d ultrasounds. You could really see the pictures of the baby, and then it’s a really fun thing to kind of, you know, for us, get the right picture on ultrasound, and then they compare it after the baby’s boy, you
Nestor Aparicio 04:22
gotta see little feet and toes. Yeah, exist, right? You know, I I’m not a grandfather. I turned 57 next month, my son and his wife they if they make babies, God bless them. I guess I’ll, I’ll have to, but I would be the guy if we were even social friends, saying, Doc, grandfather, what do you know about the next nine months with my daughter in law, which I do have a daughter in law. So if they come to me and say, All right, we just got word things are, we’re we’re going to blue balloons or pink balloons, we’re going to do all that stuff that I think excited parents might my son is. Wife would be very excited parents. I don’t, I don’t know that I’d be the excited grandparent. I’d be like, I’d be the nervous grandparent. So, a modern pregnancy, how does this go? You think you’re pregnant? You know you’re pregnant. Now they come home and they tell grandpa Ness, let me take a second on that. I have to, like, Okay, I got the colonoscopy for this GBMC thing’s gonna wear me out. So, you know, with the possibly, I like my lottery promotion, where I think about living in Willa more, but so the thought of being a grandparent for me would be the thought of, okay, let’s make a healthy baby. First things first, we’re coach. Nestor comes in and says, let’s, you know, cheerlead my daughter in law, Aubrey, okay, we’re making a baby. What do we So, how often would she see you? What? What is that period of time where we can all get excited if such a miracle happens?
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 05:49
Yeah, so usually, for a routine pregnancy, I see them every four weeks until 28 weeks, every two weeks until 36 weeks, and then every week until they have the delivery. So the full term is 37 to 39 weeks, and 40 weeks is the entire pregnancy.
Nestor Aparicio 06:05
I love routine, by the way. You said routine. What we want. We want to routine. Pregnancy, exactly, right? Yes, yes. Good word. I like that.
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 06:12
Yes, exactly, exactly. I mean pregnancy is routine, right? It’s, it’s the circle of life. It’s a very natural phenomenon. But during that whole natural phenomenon, things can go wrong, and that’s why we’re here. We’re we’re just, you know, here to make sure that all the crazy things, if they happen, we’re still able to navigate the mom and the baby safely. But it’s a really good question that you’re asking is how grandparents or partners can really support the woman, because when someone becomes pregnant, they are going through a whole lot of changes. Like, for the grandparents, yes, you are nervous, you’re excited. Same thing with the dads. They’re like, Oh my God, I don’t know. I have to, like, make the nursery. They have all these like, you know, the first thing is excitement, and then comes the nervousness of, like, all the things that we need.
Nestor Aparicio 06:59
I don’t have the hormone issue. I don’t have to deliver the baby. I don’t have to do all I have to do is just be here and hang out, I think. But I’m trying to be educated Exactly.
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 07:09
And so a lot of times, moms don’t do very well with all of those changes, but they’re just trying to keep us straight. You know, they don’t like, I think, in the modern society now, a lot of women are working. A lot of women with social media also have this pressure of just like bouncing back and showing that everything is normal and everything is great. And a lot of times when patients come to me, there is nobody else that they complain to. I am the only person that they come and they’re like, I am in so much pain, or I just feel so tired all the time and and, you know, it’s just that constant pressure of being like, I’m okay, I’m great. This is an easy pregnancy. And somehow we’re in that society. What makes it, you know, we we look at a pregnant woman and we’re like, wow, you’re you’re looking great, you know, like, and everyone wants to hear that. And so I think having at least one, you know, venture where the woman can just be like, You know what? Actually like today, I just feel really tired, and it’s really heavy, and walking hurts, and sometimes just lit you can lay down how you want to lay down.
Nestor Aparicio 08:11
I remember the Ritz crackers in the morning. I remember all Exactly,
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 08:15
exactly not being able to eat what you really want to or just some smells that you used to really love, and now you’re like, I can’t sit next to anyone who’s eating steak, like, all these things that you just can’t control. And your body is going through changes which you can’t control. And so, you know, having, like, the support people under understanding them, and kind of bringing the temperature down of that pressures, you know, kind of being like, it’s okay for you to not feel great. You know it’s okay to just come out and say pregnancy is not always like the coolest, the best thing ever. Sometimes you just feel really icky during pregnancy, and it’s okay to share that, because that helps with accepting those feelings and also doing much better in terms of peripartum anxiety or depression.
Nestor Aparicio 09:01
Well, I would also say, by the way, Anisha very Dr. Anisha very sure she can find her over GBMC. You can find her partners@gbmc.org for all this stuff, I have found them. My phone is rang. I’m making appointments. I will be reporting back. I will not be showing any my ultrasounds on my social media, but I will be reporting back that all of these years of talking to people about health, I’m now, like, acting on it. So I’m just, I mean, I’m being accountable. It’s terrible to have to do this in my sixth decade, you know, on the plan to be accountable to all of this stuff. You know, you said something about it being sort of an adventure for the people on the outside and how they can be supportive, emotionally and maybe just to understand more about anything that that this is going through. But what is the best advice that that you get, which just simple advice about staying off feet, just simple things like that? Because every time I see a. Really pregnant woman, there’s two things I know. They’re like, I can’t wait for this to be over with, usually at the end, and especially if it’s June, July and August, for sure. You know, I was an October Baby, so I got you, you know? But I think the other thing is, you’re like, I want to hug you. I want to help you. I want to get your cane. I want to get your seat. Can I get Can I sit you down? Do you need some water to you know that they get treated as though they’re they’re in need the whole time, and it’s like sometimes that can be a little bit too much. So I you know just how to handle it from my perspective. But what they should be doing, which universal good advice for anyone who’s pregnant? Obviously, the smoking, the drinking, this, rest, all of those basic things. But is there any new fangle advice that I wouldn’t get on AI,
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 10:44
no, that is the you’re absolutely right, you know, just trying to help the pregnant woman, because especially towards the end it it gets hard to walk, it gets hard to bend. So just being there to like, you know, let them sit, or not to stand too long, or make sure they’re hydrated, make sure they’re eating. You know, they don’t have to eat a big meal. Don’t force them all the time, because their hormones are also like, you know. So you don’t want to, you don’t want to keep annoying them about little things, but just always make sure they’re resting.
Speaker 1 11:12
Husband, I’m really good at annoying about little things exactly. I know all husbands
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 11:18
are, but I think, I think just, you know, helping out with a lot of the house, things like, you know, doing the dishes or cooking, or not having that pressure of all these other extra responsibilities, if you have another child really, like taking over their bedtime or helping with those chores or or even surprising them with like, 200 micrograms of caffeine, is totally safe for Pregnancy per day, and so, you know, if they need a little nice coffee or something to like make them happy, or something they really like, I think that universally, all pregnant women, they just want, they just need more help. Because once you deliver the baby, it is like you’re going, you, you, I mean, it’s a new baby. The baby can’t talk. You can’t control what the baby’s feeling. Baby’s crying, the mom is trying to breastfeed. There’s so many changes that are happening. So anyone who can come, come home, help them with the chores, say, you know you Why don’t you and at least get like, 30 minutes of sunlight, go outside, walk for a little bit, so you have some like, you know, remembrance of what kind of a person you were before you became a mom, and you’re just like diapers and breastfeeding and baby and things like that.
Nestor Aparicio 12:27
Well, I have this funny sitcom in my mind of my daughter in law being pregnant me just, you know, burrowing in and say, I’m doing the dishes. I’m doing everything for you know that I don’t think that would go well in this sitcom. You know, I’m not sure about that. Dr Anisha, very is here for GBMC. We try to have a laugh along with our education here, you know, I think the other part is, I looked you up before we come on. And some certain things I don’t know enough about, like colonoscopies and other things I know a little bit about, as being a parent and remembering morning sickness with my son’s mother. Many, many, 41 years ago now. So it’s been a minute this week is he’ll be 41 this week. So when he hears this, and I saw the word perinatal, and I thought to myself, like I hear so much about about postpartum issues, and not just the issues of women going back to work in the modern workplace and jobs and all the stresses that kind of come with that, and the expectations and earning and and then and having other children. And, I mean, I, I had someone on this week that had five children, and I’m like, that’s just sounds really, really, we’re talking about one year right now, Doc. And I’m, you know, I’m sitting back saying, all right, how would I, you know? So then you start to add that up. But then the part for women, that is to your point, hormones crazy. My wife’s a two time cancer survivor. She said two bone marrow transplants. I’ve watched all of that happen at the same time, where menopause, perimenopause were brought on by a needle, by a doctor when she had cancer. So I’ve seen all of this, but I I’ve read and heard I watch enough, starting with Donahue and all the way through Oprah and for 50 years, just about problems post pregnancy, how much different a woman’s body is. And I learned this, incidentally, my wife was, um, was we when she was battling? We went and got swabs for the bone marrow registry. We learned that in science, they will take a male donor. Her donor was male because women who have had children have different compromised immune system issues that don’t make them ideal donors in that situation. So I’ve learned all of this as I’ve gotten older, but I think that that would be my number one concern for my daughter in law, is the minute This baby is born, make sure you can get normalized and get the care and the help you need. I don’t think my wife got enough post trauma care after her cancer that I’m thinking that this giving birth as much as it’s natural, it’s traumatic.
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 14:54
Yes, yes. And I think that’s another part of modern medicine, which I think is wonderful, is, yeah. As you said, you know, we doctors as doctors, we go to medical school. We’re all about the medicine. We’re all about the science. We’re like, what can we do? What can we you know, how can we make it better? And I think there’s a huge role for the emotional part of it, like you said, the post trauma care, or even post pregnancy care, right? So delivery is a very normal process, but women after delivery, like, the minute they leave the hospital and go home with this new baby, and now they’re like, oh my gosh, like, one patient came and told me, she was like, Doc, I just feel like I’m always leaking, like I’m leaking from, you know, breastfeeding, like I just delivered love, leaking, like, and they just feel like so, like they are not sleeping at night, and they get one or two hours of sleep. Everything is fragmented. They don’t know what time, what day they’re in. It’s like,
Nestor Aparicio 15:49
if anybody spends 20 minutes just with an infant on their lap, just a small infant on their lap, they realize, Wow, this doesn’t, doesn’t take a minute off. And if you haven’t done it in a long time, and I haven’t the amount of respect that you have for it, but also just the notion that you have care now, and that we’re thinking about these things in terms of Fred and Wilma sending, you know, pebbles home and saying it’s all over with. Go home, take care of the baby and good luck. Yes, I know you do a lot more than that these days at GBMC,
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 16:22
yes, and we have a very good collaborative care for any woman who’s like, you know, I don’t have a lot of support. GBMC also has doulas that in postpartum doula so exact, yeah, that’s an amazing service. It’s if you so they, we have doulas that will come to their house. So if I got pregnant and I delivered, if I booked them, like, you know, early in the pregnancy, they’ll come to my house for like, one or two weeks. We can choose the hours they come and kind of help out with the entire house. Make sure all the bottles are cleaned, everything. Help with the breastfeeding, help the mom really just be there for doing baby laundry, just like, really being that support person of the mom is, like feeling inadequate because she can’t produce enough breast milk. They’re very good at lactation, so they’re even they’re you just have, like, this one best friend who is in your house who’s like, you can do this
Nestor Aparicio 17:13
that first couple weeks is so important, right? Yes, yes, it
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 17:17
is. It is an amazing service that GBMC offers. We also have something called collaborative care consults that we place for women who are like, I am struggling, and my husband has to go to work. My parents live in a different state. I have no help, and I’m just like, I can barely hold on. We always encourage them to reach out to us, because gvmc has so many services that we can provide, and we have, like, a group of therapists, a group of postpartum doulas, and all of us, kind of, we have a community that we can, kind of, you know, in the world of AI and social and, you know, reducing distances between people getting care, we employ a group of people to go there and help, you know, help this mom in in certain places where we, you know, she could have gotten help from our family. So we, I think, you know, as a community, GBMC is really dedicated to moms who are struggling with babies, pregnancy, postpartum care, not just mom, even partners. You know, families that are struggling, like, if, if you don’t have all of your family members here, and it’s just Dad, mom and baby, and now the work culture is like you need to get to work ASAP, like you need now to find someone to take care of your baby, or what daycares are good? Or, you know, trying to get capital for daycares. There’s just the number of problems with children. Let me tell you, they just start. You know, I
Nestor Aparicio 18:37
went to Disney World a couple months ago. I saw it. You know, I did one day at a pool with kids. A couple weeks ago, it worked out. Dr Anisha Mary is here. She’s with GBMC. So the last thing, because I began this by talking about my friend who was a nurse at GBMC, many three, four decades of living, maybe the 80s, early 90s and preemie babies, is, you know, a word that I don’t know how we we we say that at this point, but I would think that problems in pregnancy get identified very early in treatments, in education and information and science and knowing we have a problem, how to handle that problem, traumatic, early delivery that can’t everything’s routine until it’s not right in month six months seven, something happens. Um, so in that case, tell me we’re saving more babies lives than maybe we did when you went to med school. I’m sure that was a couple days, couple
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 19:32
days ago, too. Oh, I hope so. No,
Nestor Aparicio 19:35
yeah, but just how far it’s come that when someone in, you know, middle last, last segment of pre has a problem that that it can be better solved and better cared for than maybe it was when my mom had a problem pregnancy in the 1950s
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 19:56
Oh, 100% yes. In fact, I was just reading a book about the President. And you know, when you read through all of the presidents, these are people who are, you know, you say the cream of the society, and they still had so many children who died and during childbirth and and their partners who died during childbirth. So this was, I mean, for from just going back to a few years ago to now, more women are surviving if we diagnose anything early. The most important thing, as you said, you know now we have women are have so many resources. So like we have apps, GBMC has a really nice app that we encourage all pregnant women at the intake visit to download, which kind of keeps giving you, you’re in week five, you’re in week six, or you’re in week 27 make sure you look out for preeclampsia. These are the signs. So when they do have those signs, they are they know to come into the hospital once we diagnose it. I mean, there is still, you know, at the end of the day, a lot of things that we can do to, like, stop because, you know, stop any disease that’s going on or something that is getting worse with the baby. We have to deliver. And we so we have preemie babies, but those preemie babies, or premature babies that actually do well, the numbers are really high. So now a baby being born at 28 weeks, I always tell my patients, this is not a baby that you see playing in the, you know, park when they’re three years old. And you’re like, that baby was born at 28 weeks. You just can’t tell you know, that’s, that’s how great medical care has advanced. We probably can’t stop preterm delivery as much as we could. I mean, you know, as much as we want to, but better than what we could in the past, but the babies are also doing much better if they’re born early.
Nestor Aparicio 21:35
Alright, so I got a neighbor that’s really pregnant, and I’m rooting for I just yelled at her husband down the street. I’m like, October 14, that’s my birthday and and he said to me, he’s like, Well, she’s doing the seventh, but on the 14th, they’re coming for it. And I’m like, All right, so you know, if it goes full term, I’m gonna get him, so I’ve got, I am cheering for a neighbor. It’s good. You know, over the last 15 minutes, I think I’ve become more educated that I can least have modern verbiage, even though you frighten me, inspired me. You’ve done it all here in the 20 minutes here as a grandpa Nestor, inspiring. Oh man, if Grandpa Nestor on the radio would be its own sitcom. I promise you that if that were to have my friends at GBMC healthcare do more than just deliver babies, I talk about it all the time. They’ve delivered me an appointment for my colonoscopy, and I’ll be talking about that we had. Dr, scary on last week. You can find that out of Baltimore positive. Dr, very you have been dismissed my appreciation for all of your education and making me just a little bit smarter, just in case it happens in my family, but it’s already happened to my neighbors, and hopefully, if it happens in your family, you get the good care over GBMC, Thanks, doc, appreciate you
Dr. Aneesha Varrey 22:44
today. Thank you so much for having me. Have a good day.
Nestor Aparicio 22:47
Dr Anisha, very joining us here from GBMC. They sponsor our hotline as well as our injury report. Luke is out in the Owings Mills right now. We’re getting ready for football. It is the fall season. We’re having some fun around here as we’re getting educated as well. I am Nestor. We are WSD am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
