Care Calendar Marks Maternity Milestones
By Gillian Wansbrough
VANCOUVER - A B.C. physician has created a maternity care calendar that spells out pregnancy milestones on an adjustable wheel.
Dr. Stefan Grzybowski, a family physician at B.C. Women's Hospital and Health Centre, built on the maternity wheels that have been in use over the years and created a more detailed one that would also serve as a vehicle for prenatal education. The reverse side contains a set of evidence-based maternity care clinical practice guidelines.
The biggest problem with existing wheels, typically produced by pharmaceutical companies for product promotion, is that they are inaccurate, according to Dr. Grzybowski. His calendar provides likelihoods of delivery, rather than just a due date, since the chance of delivering with a spontaneous labour at 40 weeks is only 4%.
After setting the wheel to the date of the patient's last menstrual period, Dr. Grzybowski makes two photocopies, one for the patient to take home.
"It tells her when she might first hear the baby's heartbeat ... it'll show her where she conceived based on a normal menstrual cycle, tell her when her pregnancy test will turn positive if she's very early on, tell her about prenatal vitamins and folic acid and the frequency of prenatal care at the doctor's office," he said.
The other copy goes in the patient's chart to be used as an instant reference guide. "Then I'll fax it off to the hospital when it's time to send her record over so the admitting physician or nurse will have on one sheet the whole dating story on that pregnancy ... it's another shortcut."
The guidelines were put together by Dr. Colleen Kirkham, a family physician at the Children & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia and the UBC Department of Family Practice. In an interview Dr. Kirkham said she drew them up for her own reference, as a means of keeping on top of current information.
To include the guidelines with the calendar, she undertook a formal literature review. Clinical procedures, investigations and issues for discussion are presented in a checklist format.
Items in bold are supported by fairly strong evidence according to the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Exam or the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force.
The remainder have either not been reviewed or the evidence is equivocal.
By Gillian Wansbrough
VANCOUVER - A B.C. physician has created a maternity care calendar that spells out pregnancy milestones on an adjustable wheel.
Dr. Stefan Grzybowski, a family physician at B.C. Women's Hospital and Health Centre, built on the maternity wheels that have been in use over the years and created a more detailed one that would also serve as a vehicle for prenatal education. The reverse side contains a set of evidence-based maternity care clinical practice guidelines.
The biggest problem with existing wheels, typically produced by pharmaceutical companies for product promotion, is that they are inaccurate, according to Dr. Grzybowski. His calendar provides likelihoods of delivery, rather than just a due date, since the chance of delivering with a spontaneous labour at 40 weeks is only 4%.
After setting the wheel to the date of the patient's last menstrual period, Dr. Grzybowski makes two photocopies, one for the patient to take home.
"It tells her when she might first hear the baby's heartbeat ... it'll show her where she conceived based on a normal menstrual cycle, tell her when her pregnancy test will turn positive if she's very early on, tell her about prenatal vitamins and folic acid and the frequency of prenatal care at the doctor's office," he said.
The other copy goes in the patient's chart to be used as an instant reference guide. "Then I'll fax it off to the hospital when it's time to send her record over so the admitting physician or nurse will have on one sheet the whole dating story on that pregnancy ... it's another shortcut."
The guidelines were put together by Dr. Colleen Kirkham, a family physician at the Children & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia and the UBC Department of Family Practice. In an interview Dr. Kirkham said she drew them up for her own reference, as a means of keeping on top of current information.
To include the guidelines with the calendar, she undertook a formal literature review. Clinical procedures, investigations and issues for discussion are presented in a checklist format.
Items in bold are supported by fairly strong evidence according to the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Exam or the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force.
The remainder have either not been reviewed or the evidence is equivocal.
