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healthymamadoc Dr. Sarah Pachtman. The OB friend who tells you what's actually normal. Double board certified maternal fetal medicine physician. No medical advice.

Views are my own!

09/19/2026

Watch the whole thing and try to spot a single bottle.

There isn’t one. Simple Shine Cleaners steams, so what you are watching get cleaned is being cleaned with hot water.

I will be honest about why this matters to me right now.

I do not want to be leaning over a bathtub in the smallest room in my house, breathing in whatever is in the bottle, at any point in a pregnancy. And the bathroom is exactly where most of us use the harshest things we own.

Steam has no ingredient list. It has no smell, which those of you in first trimester will appreciate more than I can explain. And it does not leave anything behind on the floor my kid will be sitting on.

Also, look at that glass.

Thank you simpleshinecleaners. My house is sparkling and I did not have to think about a single label.

Vaccination in pregnancy is one of the most well-studied and well-monitored things we offer in prenatal care, and we rec...
09/17/2026

Vaccination in pregnancy is one of the most well-studied and well-monitored things we offer in prenatal care, and we recommend it because we have seen the effects of not vaccinating.

Partners, grandparents, and anyone else who will spend time around your newborn should be up to date on Tdap as well.

Getting the flu shot postpartum still helps if you missed it during pregnancy, especially if you are breastfeeding.

If you are unsure about one of these, or want to revisit a decision later in pregnancy, that is okay. Your doctor or midwife is there to talk through new information and answer your questions, any time.

Something for the stretch between appointments is on its way. Comment WAITLIST and you’ll be among the first to know.

09/16/2026

The most common sentence I hear on these calls: “I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

So here is the number that ends the debate. 100.4 or higher, you call. Same day.

Not because something is definitely wrong. Because fever is your body flagging something, and in pregnancy we want to know what it is rather than guess.

Two things that trip people up:

Under 100.4 but feeling genuinely unwell still deserves a call. The number tells you when you definitely call. It does not tell you when you are definitely fine.

Do not wait overnight to see if it comes down on its own. That is the exact window where a quick answer would have helped the most.

And to answer the sentence at the top: I have never once been annoyed by a fever call. Not once. What I actually want from you is boring information. The number, the time you took it, anything else that feels off. We take it from there.

Save this so you are not chatGPTing it at 11pm.

Booking a trip? Do these in this order.Check your airline’s cutoff and whether they want a letter, before you pay for an...
09/15/2026

Booking a trip? Do these in this order.

Check your airline’s cutoff and whether they want a letter, before you pay for anything

Ask your pregnancy care team if anything on slide 6 applies to you

Screenshot your prenatal record and save it offline, on your phone and your partner’s

Look up the nearest maternity unit at your destination

Read the pregnancy section of your travel insurance, which is often written separately from everything else

Aisle seat, water bottle, and get up every hour or two

That is the whole list. Most of it happens before you leave the house, which is exactly why people skip it.

Save this and work through it when you book.

09/14/2026

If you saw this on your report, here is your whole to do list.

Ask whether the rest of the anatomy scan was normal.

Ask whether you had cell free fetal DNA screening and what it showed.

If both answers are reassuring, you are done. Genuinely done. No follow up scan required for this alone.

If you did not have the screening, ask whether it is something you still want. That is a choice, not a correction.

An echogenic intracardiac focus is a soft marker, not a defect. Soft markers are findings we interpret in context, and the context here is short and specific.

Two questions. That is the appointment.

Save this in case you need it, or send it to someone who is waiting on a callback.

Before you say yes or no to anything, ask these four things:What exactly does this test look for, and what does it not l...
09/11/2026

Before you say yes or no to anything, ask these four things:

What exactly does this test look for, and what does it not look for

What would a normal result rule out, and what would it not rule out

If this comes back higher risk, what happens next

Do I need this result to change anything about my care

(That last one is the one people skip, and it is usually the one that makes the decision obvious.)

Screening gives you a probability. Diagnostic gives you an answer. Neither one is the responsible choice and neither one is the cautious choice. They are answers to different questions, and you get to decide which question you want answered.

Save this and bring it to your next visit.

⁣Twenty-five years.⁣⁣Today I’m thinking about the families who lost someone that morning, the kids who grew up without b...
09/11/2026

⁣
Twenty-five years.⁣
⁣
Today I’m thinking about the families who lost someone that morning, the kids who grew up without being able to touch their parent, and the babies who were born that fall into a world their mothers no longer recognized.⁣
⁣
No lesson today. Just remembering.⁣
⁣

09/11/2026

Three ingredient names I would rather not have in my house while pregnant: phthalates, parabens, triclosan.

They are endocrine disruptors. And here is the part most accounts skip: the fertility data on any one of them is mixed, and I am not going to tell you a cleaning product caused anything. The reason to bother is that checking is free and the downside is zero. That is a real argument, just not a dramatic one.

So here is how you actually use that list. If someone else cleans your house, ask what they use. You are allowed to. Almost nobody does, because we assume hiring help means taking whatever arrives.

I asked Simple Shine Cleaners before they came out. Everything used was off the shelf and named, so I could read the labels myself instead of taking anyone’s word for it. That visibility is the part I care about.

And regardless of who is cleaning: open the windows. Inhalation is the main way this gets into you, and ventilation outperforms most product decisions. Same goes for your partner, whose exposure counts too.
Ask. Know the list. Open a window. Thank you

09/10/2026

Progesterone causes tender breasts, bloating, fatigue and mood swings. Every one of those feels like a sign. None of them are proof.

You are not imagining things and your body is not gaslighting you. It really is changing.

Most home tests pick up hCG around 10 to 12 days after ovulation. By day 14 you get the clearest answer.

Do something unrelated to pregnancy. Go to a movie. Call your grandmother. Skip that baby shower.

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