Nutrition
Lily Reyes
My nutritional journey has been a lengthy one, I grew up eating a lot of McDonalds and Chinese Food takeout. In 2005, I began transitioning out of fast food and into healthy conscious eating. At the time, I thought I knew it all, thinking that wheat bread is better than white bread, or that deli meat was healthy. It wasn’t until 2011 that I learned what High Fructose Syrup was and that deli meat actually contains carcinogens. I began to eliminate all this from my diet and till this day I find myself always cautiously reading all the labels at the supermarket. Ironically that same year I learned I had a benign uterine fibroid the size of a melon. That triggered another level of mindful consumption of foods and began to eliminate/reduce foods or meats containing hormones and steroids. But, don’t get me wrong, I still live a little and eat pizza, fries, and ice-cream.
Today, as a pregnant woman, I’m even more cautious of what I consume. One immediately assumes that maternal nutritional choices are major influencers on both mother and child’s health. Yet, even with all these years of eating healthy, I still had many questions of what I should and shouldn’t eat during pregnancy. During my personal pregnancy experience, I find myself craving a grapefruit every morning before breakfast; and a pear as a late-night snack. So, I had to make sure this was safe, and it turned out it was.
This complex interaction between life and medicine may culminate on labor and delivery but is a key part of all obstetric care. A healthy pregnancy goes beyond the office, ultrasound suite, or labor and delivery. For most patients, pregnancy is a defining moment incorporating a not only medical history but lived experience into one concentrated time period.
The truth of the matter is that delivering babies is the best job in the world. Guiding patients through complex pregnancies as a maternal-fetal medicine specialist makes that even more personally and intellectually rewarding. But the privilege of being present for this momentous occasion comes with hard work and tremendous responsibility.
My initial interest in Modelo was to help bridge the gap between patients and providers. I view the app as a way to call attention to high risk issues—medical and otherwise—that patients and providers need to discuss to achieve “my” birth plan. In many ways Modelo is a birth plan that evolves alongside your pregnancy journey. A way to help achieve not only the obstetric trifecta of healthy mom, healthy baby, and vaginal delivery but to do so in a way that acknowledges that your health extends far beyond what takes place inside the hospital.
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