Ep 4 How New Research on Uterine Contractions Could Revolutionize How Labor is Monitored
Selected publications:
Myocytes, Myometrium & Uterine Contractions, 2007
Mechanotransduction Mechanisms for Coordinating Contractions in Human Labor, 2016
Monitoring uterine contractions during labor: current challenges and future directions, 2023
Pubmed page with other references: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=roger+young&sort=date
LinkedIn bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-young-3ba27587/
Here we are in the 21st century and we’re just figuring out how uterine contractions work.
Humans have giving birth for millions of years and we are only now unpacking part of the uterine contribution to this magic trick.
For years scientists used a rodent model to interrogate how uterine contractions work, which turned out to be the wrong model; scientists used the heart as a model organ to try to elucidate how electricity moves in the uterus and makes it contract, but that too, was the wrong model.
The uterus is sui generis, it’s own unique organ that, according to Dr. Roger Young, is in the last decade, becoming better understood; His company is working on making a fetal monitor to better assess when labor is in fact happening, by measuring the pressure changes in the uterus, a statistic that’s critical to understanding labor progression. Keep listening to better understand how your uterus actually works.
To see some of Dr. Young’s academic work: see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=roger+young+uterus
Although postpartum depression is the most common side effect of pregnancy–roughly 1 in 6 women will experience a less often studied condition that may be equally common– post delivery post traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Sharon Dekel, PhD is a leading researcher in the developing field of childbirth related PTSD. Her lab is focused on understanding, diagnosing and treating this regrettably common mental health challeng, and disentangling CB-PTSD from PPD. Diagnosis can be difficult to uncover because many women imagine themselves to be responsible for the natural challenges of labor and delivery; when the delivery doesn’t accord with their wishes, or takes a significant turn–which happens in roughly 20 to 30 percent of deliveries–women tend to blame themselves, and then fail to attend to the trauma and stress that follows them home from that experience. Dr. Dekel’s goal is to more quickly and accurately identify PTSD associated with childbirth, distinguish it from other postpartum mental health challenges, and get help for women who experience it. In our conversation today she talks about why this work is so important: not only does it address a significant source of stress on mothers, but PTSD can have dramatic impacts on the mother child bond, on the child’s development, and on the mother’s willingness to have more children.
Dr. Dekel also talks about her work training large language models to potentially identify PTSD after childbirth based on narrative based stories provided by women who’ve recently given birth.
To find Dr. Dekel’s work: https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/22372/sharon-dekel-tsvetkov
You can also find Dr. Dekel’s Lab here:
Episode 2: It’s not “Mommy Brain”–How Hormones during Pregnancy prepare the brain for Parenting
Dr. Pritschet is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
A Sampling of her work:
Neuroanatomical Changes Observed Over the Course of a Pregnancy in Nature Neuroscience, Sept 2024
The Menstrual Cycle Modulates Whole Brain Turbulent Dynamics in Frontiers in Neuroscience, Dec 2021
Functional Reorganization of Brain networks across the Human Menstrual Cycle in Neuroimage, Oct 2020
The brain fog and forgetfulness that may accompany pregnancy and postpartum is almost always described negatively as “mommy brain”–but this phenomenal brain plasticity needs a rebrand.
What’s actually happening is that the brain, like almost every other organ in the body, is adapting to the dramatic state of pregnancy. Some changes are transitory in the brain, as they are in the body. Some are more permanent.
Going forward, let’s be impressed by our ability to neurologically prepare for the new world we are creating with our bodies.
Today’s guest has done research on this very issue: the impact of hormones during pregnancy on the brain. By combining imaging technology, neuroendocrinology and neuroscience, she examines how sex hormones impact human brain function in pregnancy.
Dr. Pritschet’s paper on hormones and the brain during pregnancy: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01741-0
Want to participate in this work: https://wbhi.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/docs/Flyers/Maternal%20Brain%20Project/Maternal%20Brain%20Project%20Flyer%20.pdf
