Health Matters

Breastfeeding is nature-made, but it doesn’t always come naturally

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare offers lactation support in the hospital and in our Lactation Store, because it is only natural for new moms to need guidance with something they have never done before.  

The short answer: no. At any age, starting a family is a personal decision only you can make (with the help of your physician).

Today women are delaying their childbearing for various reasons. Many are marrying later in life, are furthering their education and having successful careers before starting a family. If you fall into one of these categories, do not be ashamed or afraid. Having a healthy baby may very well be in the cards for you.

It’s something most women don’t like to talk about. It’s embarrassing and can be life altering. But having a heavy, painful menstrual cycle is something worth opening up about‒at least with your doctor.

If you are experiencing uncomfortable periods that are accompanied by back or severe abdominal pain, you may have symptomatic uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow in the uterus. They are the most common type of tumor within the female reproductive system.

As a parent-to-be, you may feel overwhelmed with preparing for your new bundle of joy. You may be reading advice books and blogs, taking classes and asking friends and family for suggestions. However you do it, making sure you prepare ahead-of-time is a must.

If one simple yearly examination could significantly change the course of your life, would you elect to take it? Each year thousands of lives are saved by one test—the diagnostic mammogram. In fact, you might be surprised to know that mammography is the only medical diagnostic technology proven to decrease mortality. According to the American College of Radiology, yearly mammograms have helped to reduce breast cancer-related deaths by one-third since 1990.

It isn’t just a guy thing. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of both women and men in the United States. 

Unfortunately, only a small percentage of women believe this is the greatest health problem facing them today. And that’s concerning, because while the overall death rate from heart disease has decreased in men, it continues to increase in women.

Do You Qualify?

Medicare recently approved the coverage for the lung cancer screening which includes a low-dose CT scan. We are hoping that most other insurance companies follow suit in approving this coverage. To qualify for the screening, you must be 55 to 77 years old and:

It’s easy to get lost in sea of pink ribbons in October, making it hard to refocus on yet another cancer awareness month. But November ushers in Lung Cancer Awareness month, and although it claims a place as a “lesser known” cancer in the research and publicity world, it has had a few recent breakthroughs of its own.