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Medical records are widely treated as the most reliable source of clinical truth in both healthcare delivery and medical research. However, emerging concerns in maternal-fetal medicine suggest that documentation related to medication use during pregnancy may not always accurately reflect confirmed clinical outcomes. In particular, there has been growing discussion around how complication codes associated with psychiatric medications, and potentially other medications such as

Recently, concerns have been raised about medical discharge paperwork given to mothers who used psychiatric medications during pregnancy, especially medications such as Sertraline. According to Dr. Waggel, some mothers with completely normal deliveries discovered wording in their discharge notes that suggested “complications due to maternal psychiatric medication use,” despite there being no actual complications during labor or delivery. This wording caused emotional distress

As people become more and more attached to their phones, concerns over the role of social media in the lives of children has been the center of attention among many parents. While social media can be a way to share updates with friends and family, there are also many safety risks when sharing information online. Specifically, a person’s activity online—their digital footprint—is permanent. Even if a post is deleted, it may have been shared, downloaded, or reposted prior to de

Quarantine welcomed immense advances in the digital world, where daily activities became increasingly accessible through the internet. Since then, children have become more and more dependent on screens, where roughly 70% of 16-21 year old surveyed reported negative effects on mental health. Accordingly, parents are becoming more concerned about the role of the internet in their child’s life, where two-thirds of parents in a 2025 survey were afraid that their kids’ childhood

Becoming a parent comes with many responsibilities. This includes taking care of a child’s basic needs, protecting their health, and acting as a role model, not to mention handling unexpected situations that happen on a daily basis. Amidst all the chaos, many parents have found it extremely difficult to balance taking care of the kids, household chores, and working while having time for themselves. As a result, many parents often feel overwhelmed and stressed, negatively affe

In recent years, conversations surrounding factors affecting adolescent mental health—such as bullying, body image, and excessive screen time—have become more common. At the same time, the teen mental health crisis is worsening, where a 2024 federal survey revealed that 1 in 5 teens reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. While this has increased awareness for the importance of protecting adolescent mental health, it has also led to uneasiness amongst many parents. This i

A physician discusses the growing problem of medical misinformation on social media after strangers online gave prenatal genetic advice to a pregnant woman with a positive Turner syndrome screening result. Learn why complex medical conditions should be discussed with qualified professionals, not anonymous internet commenters.

If you are a parent of a toddler, chances are you have asked yourself this question at least once at 2 a.m.: “Is this normal?!” Your toddler was sleeping fine last month, and now suddenly they refuse bedtime, wake up crying in the middle of the night, or somehow have the energy of a caffeinated squirrel at bedtime. It can feel frustrating, exhausting, and honestly kind of confusing. The good news is that a lot of toddler sleep struggles are actually super normal. Toddlers go

Dr. Christine Hart Kress DNP, a leading women’s health nurse practitioner, discusses her journey in the healthcare field, achieving a Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) to enhance her leadership role as a Chief Nursing Officer, the challenges of bedside nursing, and what led her to specialize in Mid-life and Menopause Telemedicine Care. Charlotte: Good morning Dr. Kress, thank you again for taking my interview. If you’re ready, I can start with the first question. What origi

This essay explains how citations produced by AI is not always accurate. Therefore, it is essential to look over them properly.

Making sure to give writers credit for their work is essential when it comes to writing a research paper. However, AI has been creating a lot of problems regarding this, so it is important to lookout for weird citations.

By: Kritika Goel A disturbing trend has been observed with research publications, hallucinated citations, and AI have a big hand in it. The use of large language models by researchers to conduct literature searches or format bibliographies is a common practice, but this is leading to the generation of non-existent academic references. Citation errors in publications are not uncommon; they may involve an incorrectly spelled author name or an incorrect year of publication, but

By Avni Loya Imagine visiting your doctor while you're pregnant with a chronic condition- anything from arthritis, pain from an infection, or preeclampsia. You ask if a medication is safe to take, but the answer is often: “There isn't enough data.” This answer might seem scary at first, but it doesn't mean what you think. The reality is, there isn't enough consistent data online on how different types of medications affect you and your baby, and even published studies report

By Didi Abdelsalam When people hear someone is taking medication during pregnancy, they automatically assume that it will harm the baby. However, Dr. Waggel explains that understanding medication safety requires examining risk in a more organized, structured way. Pregnancy outcomes can be complicated, and sometimes negative outcomes occur even when no medications are taken, implying that medications are not linked to one another. One important point Dr. Waggel discusses in th

By Samiha Saifudeen Aspirin is a common medication used for pain relief and inflammation. However, during pregnancy it must be used carefully because different doses can have very different effects. Dr. Waggel explained that aspirin in pregnancy should be thought about in two ways: Low dose aspirin and regular dose aspirin. Low dose aspirin is sometimes recommended during pregnancy for medical reasons, while regular doses are generally avoided because they can cause complicat

By: Vibha Gutta The moment a person learns they’re pregnant, advice floods in from every direction: friends, social media, and sometimes even doctors insist, “Stop your meds!” It sounds logical; pregnancy is a time to protect a developing baby, so avoiding any possible medication risk seems safest. But that assumption can be dangerous. Dr. Stephanie Waggel, a perinatal psychiatrist, explains in her women’s mental health videos that blanket advice to stop medications can put b

By: Sarah Ghantiwala I am working with a group of students, under the Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Stephanie Waggel, to write a systematic review of the safety of analgesic medications during pregnancy. Dr. Waggel is a mother and physician, so for her, pregnancy and analgesics are not just prevalent in the office, but also in her personal life. Analgesic medications are among the most commonly used drugs during pregnancy, including both opioid and non-opioid agents, yet e

By: Doreen Adatsi In lieu of recent media, there appears to be a possible link between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. These possible linkages are highlighted in Dr. Waggel’s discussion of Mount Sinai’s study. More precisely, Dr. Waggel concludes that there is a possible association between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism/other neurodevelopmental disorders; this does not establish causation. Therefore, furt

Some premed and medical students are quizzed in a manner that is not pleasant

frustration in medical training, how to improve the culture of medicine