The Healthy Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a transformative experience—but what does a truly healthy pregnancy look like, and how can patients prepare for one?
In this episode of HERology, Dr. Anu Lala is joined by her co-hosts, Dr. Joanne Stone and Dr. Anna Barbieri, for an honest and wide-ranging conversation about pregnancy before, during, and after delivery.
They discuss why a preconception visit can be so important, how a woman's pregnancy history can provide a window into her current and future health, and why "common" symptoms shouldn't necessarily be dismissed as normal.
The conversation also explores what symptoms and complications deserve closer attention, choosing the right obstetric practice, birth plans and vaginal delivery after a C-section, medications and pregnancy—including the unanswered questions surrounding GLP-1 medications—and the larger gaps in what we know about medication safety during pregnancy.
Anu Lala: [00:00:00] Sex during pregnancy. Yes, no?
Joanne Stone: There's some people that just really are like s- I mean, it's either the patient or the partner who are really squeamish. Like, they, they think that the fetus is gonna know what they're doing
Anu Lala: Hello and welcome back to Herology, the Mount Sinai Health System's newest video podcast. I'm your co-host, Dr. Anu Lalla, and today we're talking about pregnancy. What makes a healthy pregnancy? What symptoms are the most serious? And what are the most common things people wish they'd known following their pregnancy?
To help answer these questions and more, I'm joined by our regular co-hosts, Dr. Joanne Stone and Dr. Ana Barbieri. Welcome. All right. Well, I'm so excited to be here with you both. We're gonna be talking about the healthy pregnancy. I have so many questions for you both. As a measly cardiologist, I don't, I can tell you I've been through two [00:01:00] pregnancies, but I have so many questions that I hope you can answer for both me and for our audience.
Maybe we'll start with you, okay if I call you Joanne? Um- Please
Joanne Stone: do.
Anu Lala: Why do we focus, when we talk about the healthy pregnancy, we talk, I mean, when I think about that, I think about the nine months What does a healthy pregnancy mean to you?
Joanne Stone: I mean, it's such a good question 'cause it's sort of like the polar opposite of what I get asked, which is, "What's a high-risk pregnancy?"
Anu Lala: Right.
Joanne Stone: Which is, you know, could be anything. Could be anything from, you know, somebody's 35 to somebody has terrible heart dise- you know, heart disease. But I think a healthy pregnancy most people would think about is having a good maternal outcome, where she stays healthy throughout the pregnancy and after delivery, and the baby also is h- is born healthy.