Mystic Women's Health Blog

For those of you who have experienced being post-term in your pregnancy, you understand the unique frustration of trying to get your labor going. You’ve put in 9 months of hard work and now you are ready! And uncomfortable. You’ve possibly searched for any home remedies to induce labor, or maybe your friends and family elicited some advice. Let me break down the truth behind some of the old wives’ tales regarding inducing labor. Although not all of these are evidence based, there is physiological reasoning why many OBGYNs and midwives have suggested them in the past. But first, let’s define what “post-dates” mean. A pregnancy is dated 40 weeks. As uncomfortable as those last weeks in pregnancy may be, your baby needs every week of pregnancy to grow both inside and out. Your baby continues to grow and develop, even in the last few weeks of pregnancy. This is why staying pregnant full term gives your baby a healthy start, and also why if you ask Dr. Guthrie for an induction before 4...

I recently took some time off between finishing school and starting my position as a nurse practitioner. I spent 3 weeks with my family who live in the south of Italy. It was the first time I have spent more than 10 days in a row out of work or school in three years. The days before leaving for Italy my life was frantic -wrapping up school, transitioning my position at work, graduation, etc. I landed in Naples exhausted. The next morning I woke up in my grandmother’s house with a sense of lightness and liberty that I hadn’t felt since… well, the last time I was in Italy. As I write this I can already feel my readers rolling their eyes and thinking, “great, another Eat Pray Love blog” or “Of course she’s finding her happiness on the beach with an espresso on a Tuesday.” But that’s not what I’m hoping this blog ends up being. See, I love my American life and being in Italy only makes me more grateful for it. I love to work, I love being busy, I love all of the opportunities attainabl...

I was compelled to write this blog after hearing numerous patients report low sexual desire during GYN visits. If you’re feeling this way in your relationship, you’re not alone.  As I have learned, sexual response is a complex and multifactorial subject and there is no magical libido pill. To fully understand sexual desire, lets start by exploring a common relationship trajectory. A relationship begins filled with passion. You're having sex in the back of the car because you can't even wait to get upstairs kind of passion. Everything you do in the beginning of a relationship revolves around sex. Where you'll go to dinner, what time you'll go dancing, what underwear you'll wear, how many drinks you’ll have… The “honey moon phase” of a relationship is really just synonymous with “when sex wasn’t a guarantee and therefore both parties worked hard for it to happen, and for it to happen well.” The sexual desire in the beginning of a relationship builds from a long...