Yes, You Should Start Taking Folic Acid Before You Get Pregnant

A SciMoms Guide to Folate and Folic Acid in Pregnancy If you’re planning to get pregnant, it’s important to start taking folic acid at least one month before you conceive in order to ensure your baby’s healthy neurodevelopment. While we don’t know the exact role of folic acid in pregnancy, we know that folic acid … Continue reading Yes, You Should Start Taking Folic Acid Before You Get Pregnant

Medical Sexism: The Consequences of Sexist Care

If you have ever been told you cannot get a prescription refill on your birth control pills until you come into the doctor’s office for a Pap test; if your experience in the labor and delivery room involved medical professionals overriding or ignoring your expressed wishes; if you have ever received a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis due to a physician not listening to or believing your symptoms, you may have experienced “medical sexism.”

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Are we worried about the CDC’s new guidance for fully vaccinated people?

Yesterday, the CDC released new guidance for fully vaccinated people in response to very encouraging real-world data about COVID-19 vaccines. To reflect this growing body of evidence, the CDC updated their guidance to recommend that:  “fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, … Continue reading Are we worried about the CDC’s new guidance for fully vaccinated people?

Trans Kids Need Appropriate Health Care

My kid is trans. How should we tell friends and family?

Research has shown that transgender kids who are supported in their identity by their families have good mental health outcomes — they experience similar rates of depression as cisgender kids. But even parents who want to support their kids may have questions. Below, Russell Toomey, PhD, answers questions about caring for transgender and gender-questioning kids. … Continue reading My kid is trans. How should we tell friends and family?

Ask SciMoms: When can my kids hug their grandparents after COVID vaccination?

The CDC recently released guidelines about what is safe after COVID vaccination. With a growing proportion of fully vaccinated older Americans, the most burning question the SciMoms and many of our readers have is: when can our kids hug their grandparents after COVID vaccinations?  The new guidelines do not specifically mention kids, but most kids … Continue reading Ask SciMoms: When can my kids hug their grandparents after COVID vaccination?