Posts by Liz Labby, CNM, MPH, MN

This article is part of WHA’s new perimenopause and menopause series. You can learn more about knowing and coping with the first signs of perimenopause, the 34 most common symptoms, menopause weight management and more. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is an available treatment option for many people dealing with perimenopause symptoms when the effects of…

Effective August 1, 2021, Northwest Perinatal Center’s Antenatal Surveillance Guidelines 2021 are intended to replace the version we made available in 2014. Similar to prior changes, please use shared decision-making with your current patients when choosing whether to keep their established care plan or to follow these new recommendations. These updated guidelines reflect updated primary…

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), as part of the Choosing Wisely® campaign by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation, has, over the last year, released a list of Things Physicians and Patients Should Question. The SMFM list includes now a total of ten evidence-based recommendations that are intended to assist care providers…

The lead presentation at the SMFM Annual Meeting in February of 2016 was an evaluation of the benefit of antenatal betamethasone therapy in patients at risk of delivering in the late preterm period (34 0/7-36 6/7 weeks).(1) It was concurrently published in the NEJM. The study was a multicenter, randomized control trial by the NICHD MFMU…

Recently, recommendations for the use of low-dose aspirin therapy during pregnancy for the prevention of preeclampsia have expanded and evolved.  These include serial statements from both ACOG and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The most recent recommendations from the USPSTF cite a potential 24% risk reduction with low-dose aspirin use among women at…

As part of Northwest Perinatal Center’s efforts to continuously improve the service that we provide our referring providers and patients, we are deploying a new process to automatically schedule patients to return for a follow-up limited anatomy evaluation when this is recommended following a fetal anatomy survey with “suboptimally seen anatomy.”  We have received several…

The widespread use of sonographic markers, such as echogenic intracardiac focus (EIF) or choroid plexus cyst (CPC) to assist in identifying fetuses at increased risk for common aneuploidies (trisomy 21, 18, 13) dates back to the 1980s. However, since the more recent introduction of earlier and more sensitive aneuploidy screening methods such as cell-free DNA…

In 2016, a multicenter trial by the NICHD MFMU Network evaluating the benefit of antenatal betamethasone therapy in patients at risk for delivering in the late preterm period (34 0/7 – 36 6/7 weeks) was published. This study suggested a modest, yet statistically significant benefit in composite respiratory outcome from betamethasone therapy when compared to…

Northwest Perinatal Center is pleased to announced MEDx (MFM Express Didactics) Talks. Each lecture is 15 minutes or less and deals with a focused perinatal management topic. Find the most recent talks here below and on our YouTube playlist: http://bit.ly/MEDxNWP.

Based on new recommendations from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), Northwest Perinatal Center will no longer be recommending antenatal fetal testing or surveillance for idiopathic mild polyhydramnios (AFI 24.0 to 29.9 cm). If mild polyhydramnios is identified, NWP will continue to support you by providing appropriate fetal assessment for potential underlying structural anomalies /…