Healthful Woman Podcast

This episode of Healthful Woman features Dr. Jaclyn Bonder, associate professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine at Cornell with expertise in pelvic, pregnant, and postpartum pain.

In this episode of Healthful Woman, Dr. Fox continues his conversation with Dr. Esther Rollhaus, a reproductive psychiatrist, as she shares the second half of her deeply personal journey through postpartum psychosis. She discusses her recovery, the treatment that helped her heal, returning to work as a psychiatrist, growing her family through surrogacy, and how her experience has shaped the compassionate care she now provides to patients facing postpartum mental health challenges.

On this episode of the Healthful Woman Podcast, Dr. Nathan Fox speaks with reproductive psychiatrist Dr. Esther "Esty" Rollhaus, who shares the first part of her personal fertility and birth journey: years of male-factor infertility and multiple IVF cycles during medical school and residency, culminating in a twin pregnancy. She recounts a harrowing delivery at 32-33 weeks complicated by an unrecognized preterm labor, an inability to breathe while pushing, and serious postpartum infections in both her and her newborn son, followed by a difficult seven-week NICU stay for both twins. The episode closes on a reflective note about the disconnect between the joy she expected as a new mother and the fear and emotional numbness she actually experienced.

Dr. Andrei Rebarber returns to Healthful Woman to discuss thrombophilia, or blood clotting, in pregnancy. In this episode, he explains research into thrombophilia, the hormonal or genetic causes for clotting in pregnancy, and more.

In this Mailbag episode, Dr. Fox answers listener questions covering uterine dehiscence versus uterine rupture, including how they're diagnosed, managed, and what they mean for future pregnancies. He also addresses a listener's recovery and subsequent pregnancy planning after a complete uterine rupture, the effects of maternal sepsis on a fetus, and why many women with gestational diabetes have normal A1C levels outside of pregnancy. As always, Dr. Fox draws on clinical experience and research to give nuanced, reassuring answers to these complex questions.