chandler ob gyn

Chandler Obgyn Tamar Gottfried discusses weight management over the holidays:

As we prepare to enter the holiday season, many people are focusing on simple weight managment- i.e. not gaining weight between November and January. However, there are those already on weight loss journeys, wondering how to achieve their goals. As I speak to patients in my office about nutrition and exercise a common question arises: Why am I not losing weight?

Although there a million different diet and exercise plans out there, the simple fact remains that in order to lose weight, a person has to burn more calories than she ingests. The most effective nutrition plans advise food journaling ( which means writing down every morsel eaten and weighing and measuring ingredients and portions for accuracy) and calorie restriction. Some people eat the right kinds of food, but eat too much of them due to misjudging portion sizes. While calories, as well as proportions of fat, carbs and protein, do have to be watched in order to have weight loss success, the total number of calories cannot be too high or too low. Many people who are trying to lose weight eat too little or too infrequently during the day. Then their bodies think they are in a starvation mode and hold on to every calorie. That is how someone can eat very little and still not drop weight.

There are many people who exercise daily and become frustrated when the scale doesn’t budge. Again, it is the calories in, calories out idea that can affect weight loss. It has been found that people who exercise regularly may also burn less total calories in the rest of their day, being more sedentary as a reward for having “worked out”. If a person works out and then sits at a desk all day and comes home to sit in front of a computer or a TV, the total calories burned for the day may be low. Additionally, if a person is ravenously hungry after a workout and ends up eating more than usual at the next meal or snack, this will affect the total calories in for the day.

Unfortunately, there is no easy weight loss solution- magic pills aren’t so magic, the success of the HCG diet involves continuing to follow a low calorie diet, and exercise requires a daily commitment to personal challenge. However, in the simplest terms, burning more calories a day through exercise and incorporating calorie burning activities throughout the day, than calories taken in through eating, will eventually result in weight loss success. Luckily there are many more specific tools and plans like Weight Watchers, and the Body Bugg to help people achieve their goals.

As an Chandler Ob gyn physician who has personal experience with weight issues and lifestyle changes, I have a particular interest in helping women address their diet and exercise challenges. Contact my Mesa office for more information.

Tamar Gottfried is a Board Certified Obstetrician/ gynecologist practicing general Ob/gyn in Mesa Arizona and affiliated with Banner Desert and Banner Gateway Medical Centers. She can be contacted at 480-545-0059. This is a general interest article only and is not intended to be medical advice. See a medical professional before making medical decisions

Chandler Obgyn Tamar Gottfried discusses why you should deliver your baby in a hospital;

In past centuries, most of the babies in this country were born at home with midwives. Infant and maternal deaths were not an uncommon occurrence. Over the years, more and more births were done in hospitals by physicians, and labor and delivery became a medical event. The availability of safe cesarean delivery, antibiotics, epidurals and advanced neonatal care improved the safety of the labor and delivery process for moms and babies.

In more recent decades, there has been another shift in opinion to a care model that allows moms to have the safety of hospital delivery with some of the comforts of home. Long gone are the routine shaving and enemas and episiotomies of the past. Now, hospital based labor and delivery units can offer bedroom-like rooms, wireless fetal monitors, birthing balls and squat bars and nursing support and encouragement for a natural delivery with the safety of operating rooms and neonatal teams minutes away for the rare emergencies that happen.

While the majority of labors are uneventful and proceed without incident, emergencies can occur without warning. A perfectly normal labor and delivery for an experienced mom can turn scary in minutes if the placenta stops working suddenly, a baby’s shoulder gets stuck, a baby doesn’t breathe at delivery or if bleeding doesn’t stop after the baby is born. While some women are classified as “high risk” during the pregnancies and these types of problems are anticipated, obstetric emergencies can happen to anyone. For this reason, hospital delivery brings a level of comfort and security for expectant parents.

Home birth has been around since the dawn of humanity and, under the care of experienced midwives, continues to be an option for low risk women. As my colleague puts it- if you ride on the freeway at 100 mph on a motorcycle without a helmet, you may make it to your destination, but you are taking a risk. It is the same with home birth- it can be safe, but when unexpected events occur, transfer to a hospital is a necessity and the time it takes to get there can critical for mom and baby.

In the instances when emergencies develop, I am always happy to be practicing in the safety of a hospital like Banner Desert Medical Center, with a a level 3 Neonatal ICU, a full children’s hospital, and 24 hour neonatologist on site , with advanced techniques to stop maternal bleeding available, with 3 operating rooms staffed and ready to go, with high risk pregnancy consultants and ultrasound right there, and with anesthesiologists assigned 24/7 to the maternity ward. My patients who choose to have a more natural, unmedicated delivery can do so in a safe and supportive environment. That is why, as an Ob Gyn in Mesa, I recommend hospital delivery for my patients.

I watch what I eat and exercise regularly- why am I not losing weight?

I’m not sick, I’m pregnant! Why should I deliver in a hospital?