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As part of Fox 25's "Baby Week," camera crews were at BWH Wednesday morning to film a patient preparing for a c-section, a baby recently home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and a new mom returning home with her newborn. Watch all of the Fox 25 morning videos now!

"You have cancer."
"Your wife has cancer."
"Your daughter has cancer."
The words are chilling. Even terrifying. They trigger such terror, it's hard to hear anything that comes after the word "cancer." It can feel as though the word itself eclipses everything else, and that the diagnosis is synonymous with imminent death. And yet, medical researchers and clinicians have teamed up to make an increasing number of cancers survivable, even curable. So as more and more adolescent girls and women survive—and even thrive—after receiving cancer diagnoses and treatments, their hopes and dreams are increasingly turning to the quality of their post-cancer lives, including fertility and having children.

When "Annika" was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 25, in 1997, survival was foremost in her mind. Luckily, her hometown of Brussels, Belgium hosts a pioneering clinic that has been on the forefront of fertility preservation in cancer patients for nearly 20 years. Recently, a team of doctors from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) travelled to Brussels to gain the expertise they'll need to establish a similar program at BWH, in partnership with Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

At the Catholic University of Louvain, in Brussels, Belgium, Dr. Jacques Donnez leads a devoted team of clinicians and scientists who are pioneering ovarian tissue cryopreservation. In 1997, before Annika began her cancer treatments, Dr. Donnez’s team removed some of her healthy ovarian tissue and froze it for long-term storage. By the time her chemotherapy treatments were completed, she was infertile.

In 2003, Dr. Donnez’s team successfully reimplanted Annika’s cryopreserved ovarian tissue that they had removed six years earlier. Five months later she began ovulating again, and eleven months after reimplantation she became pregnant via natural fertilization. In 2004, she became the first woman in the world to give birth to a healthy baby after reimplantation of her own cryopreserved ovarian tissue.

Dr. Catherine Racowsky, director of the assisted reproductive technologies laboratory at BWH and Professor at Harvard Medical School, envisions achieving similar medical milestones here at BWH. On their recent trip to visit Dr. Donnez’s clinic, the BWH team observed ovarian tissue harvesting and re-implantation procedures, and learned and practiced laboratory protocols alongside Dr. Donnez’s team for freezing and thawing ovarian tissue, and isolating follicles from this tissue for growth in the laboratory. Reflecting on the trip, Dr. Racowsky said, “We are committed to establishing Brigham and Women’s as the premier site for fertility preservation in our country. In order to achieve this mission, we felt it was crucial to visit the world’s most successful ovarian tissue cryopreservation group given the novel nature of these procedures.

In addition to Dr. Racowsky, the BWH team that travelled to Belgium included Dr. Elizabeth Ginsburg, medical director of assisted reproductive technologies at BWH and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Antonio Gargiulo, director of robotic reproductive surgery at BWH and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School; and Dr. Sara Barton, clinical fellow in reproductive endocrinology at BWH.

Philanthropic support for a BWH fertility preservation center could help restore the hopes and dreams of girls and women coping with cancer diagnoses. To learn more about bringing fertility preservation to BWH, contact Kim Lubin in the BWH Development Office at klubin@partners.org or at 617-424-4223.

Most new mothers try breastfeeding their babies because they know that breast milk can provide nutrition and build the immune system in a way that formula can't. And as this month is National Breast Feeding Awareness Month, we're highlighting some lesser known facts of breastfeeding. Breast milk contains all the nutrients needed for your baby's growth and development. Not only does it have great health benefits for your newborn, it also provides you, the mother, health benefits. Dr. Robert M. Insoft, the Brigham and Women's Hospital neonatal intensive care unit medical director, told the Boston Globe, "Babies who get breast milk feed faster and go home sooner [from the hospital], than the ones who get commercial formula. Remember, breast milk isn't just nutritional, it's medicinal."
Breastfed babies may have less risk for developing:

• diarrhea or constipation
• ear infections
• asthma
• diabetes
• leukemia
• respiratory infections
• allergies

• faster postpartum recovery
• cost-efficiency
• reduced risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer
• quicker weight loss after giving birth

News 7 Heathcast features a new robotic myomectomy procedure that is providing hope to women with fertility concerns. Dr. Serene Srouji of Brigham & Women's Hospital talks about this minimally invasive approach and its remarkable results.
Click to watch the feature!

Many of life's circumstances can create a high stress environment for an expectant mother, like financial worries, difficult personal relationships, feeling unsafe at home, and neighborhood violence. In turn, experiencing this stress could raise the risk of asthma for her child, according to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Building upon previous studies, lead author Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH, and her colleagues investigated immune function markers in the cord blood of infants born to mothers in high-stress environments compared to those born to mothers with less stress. They found patters of cytokines related to certain stimulants differed based on the level of stress mothers reported.

Cytokines are small proteins made by cells that influence how other cells interact or behave; for example, cytokines may affect how immune cells respond to an infection or allergens. How the body responds to these stimulants depends on what type of cytokines a person's cells tend to produce.

For the study, researchers recruited pregnant women from urban areas. Families were largely ethnic minorities from communities in which greater than 20 percent of the individuals were living below poverty level, and the father or pregnant mother having a history of asthma or allergy. The 557 mothers answered questions about stressors in her life, including domestic and community violence and finances. When the infants were born, researchers looked at how the babies' immune systems responded to factors including dust and viruses.

"Current findings suggest that psychological stress is involved in programming the infant immune response and that this influence begins during pregnancy," says Wright, who works in BWH's Channing Laboratory. "As these infants mature, we will learn how these factors manifest later in terms of the development of asthma and allergy.

Dr. William Camann, director of Obstetric Anesthesia at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and co-author of Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth answers those nagging questions many moms have about labor.

Stork Fund: What are the options for labor pain relief?
Dr. Camann: There are a lot of different options even though most people immediately think of an epidural, which is the most common form of pain relief. Of the 4 million births that take place in the U.S. each year, approximately 80% of moms receive epidurals. There are other medicines as well as a variety of drug-free options.
- Water therapy, such as immersion in water, a warm shower, or jacuzzi is comforting and soothing for labor.
- Mindful techniques require some training before labor, but can help to ease pain through mental imagery, focus, and mental distraction.
- Simply walking around the labor and delivery floor, or being in the upright position, can comfort and help labor progress.

SF: Are epidurals safe for mom and baby?
Dr. Camann: The epidural procedure is extraordinarily safe; however, there can be side effects. Epidurals can cause a drop in blood pressure, itching, and spinal headaches but these are short-lived effects of the medicine. Sometimes, the epidural doesn't provide enough pain relief, but this can usually be taken care of by the anesthesiologist. The epidurals used at BWH are all "patient-controlled", meaning the patient herself can adjust the amount of medication used, allowing her to control the experience to exactly her desired level of comfort.

SF: How common are Cesarean-sections?
Dr. Camann: C-sections account for approximately 30% of births in the U.S. This means one out of every three women have one. There are different ways to anesthetize for a C-section surgery. 98% of these surgeries at BWH are done under regional (i.e., spinal or epidural) anesthesia, allowing the new mom to be wide awake, but pain free, and allowing her and her partner hold her baby and start bonding immediately.

SF: The introduction in your book is entitled, "A New Philosophy, A New Approach" can you talk about how the approach to labor and childbirth has changed?
Dr. Camann: Mostly, the way we approach pain relief during labor and childbirth has changed significantly. It is increasingly important to keep an open mind during labor and to make decisions based on what is best for you, your baby, and your partner. Don't let anyone coerce you into doing things a certain way - always do what is best for you. Being fully informed about the options is the best way to approach labor. The nurses, anesthesiologists, obstetricians and midwives will work with each individual patient to develop the pain management approach that is best for you during labor. Lastly, never feel guilty for making the decision that suits you best.

SF: As the director of obstetric anesthesia at BWH, what is one thing you do to help soon-to-be-new moms experience a more joyful labor?
Dr. Camann: I try to make their labor experience less about being in the hospital and more about making positive memories about the birth of their child. We always try our best to make the delivery room homey and family focused.

SF: Any last words of advice for partners in the delivery-room?
Dr. Camann: Digital cameras have changed the delivery-room experience. With C-sections, especially, the first time the mother sees her baby is usually on the screen of a digital camera. Take a picture of the clock on the wall at the moment of birth, this is a great way to remember the time and it looks nice next to the baby's first picture as a recollection of the moment. These are moments you want to remember, so make sure your camera battery is charged!

http://www.brighamandwomens.org/About_BWH/publicaffairs/news/video/ManagingLaborPainVideo.aspx
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