Sarah Bradley

A birth plan is kind of an oxymoron: While there are some things in life you can plan for, the birth of a baby isn’t exactly one of them. Babies are infamous for disregarding their due dates, right along with all of your hopes for a specific kind of delivery or birth experience (ugh, they’re so rude).
At the end of the day, the birth you have is more dependent upon your body and your baby, not any plan you wrote down while 7 months pregnant.
That said, there is value to creating a birth plan ...

One minute your sweet baby is cooing and babbling, eating mashed peas, kicking their little feet, and relying on you for every single thing.
And the next minute, you’ve got a walking, talking, opinionated — ahem — independent toddler on your hands. What just happened?
You blinked, and your baby grew up. Your child is in a whole new phase of life and you’ll need to step up your game to meet their changing needs.
But when, exactly, is the big transformation from baby to toddler? Here are 13 sig...

There are a lot of limits on the types of medications and supplements you can take during pregnancy — but prenatal vitamins are not only allowed, they’re strongly recommended.
A good prenatal can help keep you and your growing baby healthy, ensuring that you’re both getting all the nutrients you need to make it through those 9 codependent months of pregnancy.
If prenatal vitamins are for you and baby, though, why do so many healthcare providers tell women to start taking them before pregnancy...

You’ve noticed changes in your urine—like discoloration and foaminess—and you’ve been swelling up lately, especially around your ankles. Some of your symptoms may be easily explained by common conditions, such as stress, pregnancy, and infection, but this constellation of symptoms could also be blamed on chronic kidney disease (CKD).
What is chronic kidney disease?
Classified as damage to your kidneys that has gone on for many months, chronic kidney disease occurs when your kidneys stop worki...

Conventional wisdom has told us that men are less likely than women to visit the doctor or seek out medical care, but a new Danish study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health suggests that stereotype might not be as straightforward as it seems. It’s true that women access primary healthcare services at a higher rate than men, but that may be because women live longer with serious medical conditions than men—and therefore go to more healthcare visits.
Furthermore, researc...

If the coronavirus pandemic has turned you into an impromptu homeschooler, you're suddenly tasked with making sure your kid's brains don't turn into mush by the time they go back to school.
Your child's teacher may have sent them home with plenty of packets to complete while out of the classroom, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't supplement those assignments with other brain-stimulating activities (especially if they involve screen time that is purely educational).
The following online reso...

If pregnancy is an emotional roller coaster, then the postpartum period is an emotional tornado, often full of more mood swings, crying jags, and irritability. Not only does giving birth cause your body to go through some wild hormonal adjustments, but you also have a whole new human living in your house.
All of that upheaval can initially lead to feelings of sadness, stress, and anxiety rather than the joy and elation you were expecting. Many people experience these “baby blues” as a normal ...

Preparing to give birth under normal circumstances can be stressful and a little frightening, but when you throw a viral pandemic—like the one happening right now with COVID-19—into the mix, things start to feel really intense.
If you’re pregnant and your due date is fast approaching, you probably have a lot of questions about what your labor and delivery is going to look like, and we wish we had all the answers.
Unfortunately, because the pandemic is an evolving situation, there are a lot of...

If you’re one of the 70 million people living with a sleep disorder, you’ve probably struggled to find a safe and effective way to get better sleep at night. Over-the-counter sleep aids, like ZzzQuil and Unisom, don’t always work. Meanwhile, taking the plunge into prescription sleep medications, such as Ambien, carries a risk of dependence (creating another problem instead of a solution!).
For many people with sleep problems, taking a melatonin supplement before bed seems like the best option...

When schools closed in March due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, most parents prayed it would be a short-term problem. But as more and more states have opted to close their schools’ doors through the rest of the school year, you've likely found yourself with more and more time to fill, and not all of this time can be spent watching YouTube videos or doing worksheets.
With that in mind, perhaps it's time to turn your kids’ distance learning into something more relevant to the current c...

The keto diet, with its emphasis on consuming foods with high amounts of fat, is usually the diet-of-choice for meat lovers. Although many people think of consuming lots of bacon and greasy burgers when you're doing keto, it's actually possible to take a more plant-based approach and follow a vegetarian keto diet.
By putting a vegetarian spin on the keto diet, dieters are making an effort to lower the amount of saturated fats they consume. But once you cut out carbs and meat, what else is act...

If you're a mom of little kids, you probably heard all those parenting experts encouraging you to take a momcation and thought, "Umm, yeah, that sounds great...but it's totally unrealistic." You can barely leave the house for a lunch date with the girls—how are you supposed to skip town for 48 to 72 hours without your kids? Can your family actually survive without you? And would it even be worth all the effort to make it happen?
Well, last summer I took one of these legendary momcations, and ...

When your child is changing schools—either because they're graduating from one school and going to another or because your family is relocating—there's always some uncertainty involved. Will they thrive in their new environment? What is the school culture and climate like? How much emphasis is placed on academics versus creative arts, achievement versus growth, test scores versus love of learning?
For parents wanting to know more about a school's overall quality, the internet is full of ratin...

It’s safe to say that none of us were ready for the widespread effects of coronavirus in the U.S., least of all working parents with kids in school or daycare. All families have been impacted by the outbreak in some way, whether it’s schools closing, employers shutting down businesses (or not), the shortages of food, supplies, and medications, or the strict rules around social isolating.
If you’re wondering what you’re actually supposed to do with your kids 24/7 in the wake of mass closings, ...

It's so much more than just a runny nose.
You woke up with a sore throat and cough this morning, figured you were getting a cold, grabbed some lozenges, and went to work. Now it’s barely noon and you’re crashing—hard: body aches, chills, a throbbing pain behind your eyes, the whole nine yards.
Kinda sounds like you have the flu—and if If you’re normally the type to power right through illnesses, you might want to reconsider the whole not-staying-home-in-bed thing because the flu is not your a...