Home birth, its merits notwithstanding, may be a bigger risk to the baby than some parents would tolerate in other decisions. With many friends getting pregnant these days, one question I get a lot is some version of “We’ve heard a lot about home births. What do you think about them?” Remarkable new-ish research from Oregon helps explain why it’s…
Month: October 2017
Age & Fertility Furore, Part 1
Throwing a Little Data on the Media Fire over Maternal Age & Fertility First off, a belated Happy Father’s Day! (Belated on the Blog because I got to spend Father’s Day with my old man in Boston. Great to see you, Dad!) Jean Twenge has created a media furore over maternal age & fertility with a cover piece in The…
Age & Fertility Furore, Part 2
The Real Data on Maternal Age & Fertility Part 2 took a critical look at maternal age and fertility as discussed in The Atlantic. I found it misleading – it ignored the great difficulty faced by those who are infertile and the rise of birth complications as the mother ages. I said, broadly, that fertility drops gradually as would-be parents age…
Dogs – Good for Babies & their Parents
Go out and adopt that puppy right away. Turns out dogs are good for babies and their parents. Back when my brother & I, strong dog advocates, were kids, we waged a long struggle against our mom, a major dog-aphobe in those days. Our dad was a dog-lover, too, but stayed mostly out of the fray. After almost of decade…
Market Failure, Part 2 – Deeper Look
Detail on the 3 interrelated “imperfections” that ruin the delivery of health in the United States and abroad. In the previous post, I promised a more thorough explanation but “ran out of room”. First is the mismatch between objective medical quality and patients” perception of quality. Second, and closely related to the first, are the incentives that creates for providers.…
Market Failure, Part 1
Why sustainable, quality care is so hard to find – nutshell version A fairly routine week here in Nairobi, so it”s a great chance to discuss a major problem I am trying to navigate here – how to sell high quality health care.* Not like buying pizza At first glance, this may seem simple. Those who value their health should be…
The Fundamental Question
For my first* post, I will try to answer the fundamental question behind all this pregnancy and baby care hoopla – does it all matter? If kids were genetic automatons, then it wouldn’t much matter what we do to them. No amount of good parenting would do much good. As long as you and your partner have high IQs and fancy graduate…