July Blessing Rounds – Maternity Care, Filipino Rap, Anime

It’s been a wild few months due to work and life events– and so we are due for a sizable update. This is really a April-May-June-July Blessing Round-up of a few of my favorite things in medicine, Asian-American culture, and art!

Medicine

I attended the 2019 AAFP Family Centered Maternity Conference this July. As a junior attending at a residency program, coming out of the conference, I felt solidified in things we do on the labor and delivery floor and also updated on evidence-based-medicine. I cannot help but share the wealth– here are some high yield notes from my EverNote:

• Part 1
  • Obesity in pregnancy
  • Opioid use in pregnancy
  • Maternal health disparities
  • Preconception and interconception care
  • Infections in pregnancy
  • Rural maternity care
  • Implicit biases in maternity care
  • Prematurity prevention and treatment
  • Diabetes in pregnancy
• Part 2
  • OB triage
  • OP malposition management
  • Category 2 tracing management
  • Labor dystocia
  • Prenatal care
  • IOL management
  • Pre-eclampsia
• Part 3
  • Pregnancy care for LGTBQ pts
  • Trauma care
  • Billing
  • C/S epidemic
  • Legislative advocacy
  • Postpartum VTE
• Part 4
  • Elective C/S
  • Stillbirth
  • Genetic screening
  • Postpartum care
  • Chorioamnionitis, endometritis, neonatal sepsis
  • PPH
  • Vaginal seeding

Please attend next year conference and share the opportunity!

Other medical blessings:

• Perchance to Think – Dr. Danielle Ofri wrote this beautiful piece in the NEJM about physician’s daily struggle with time.
• Sugary drink consumption and risk of cancer: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort – The consumption of sugary drinks was significantly associated with the risk of overall cancer (n=2193 cases, subdistribution hazard ratio for a 100mL/d increase 1.18, 95% confidence interval 1.10 to 1.27, P<0.0001) and breast cancer (693, 1.22, 1.07 to 1.39, P=0.004). I tell my pediatric patients that juices are as bad as sodas; just drink water.

Filipino & Asian America

• Hood Famous Bakeshop – a famous Filipino small Seattle bakery with “a big heart and a big appetite” known for there Ube desserts, coffee, Filipino meryenda, and aesthetic merch. I discovered them on instagram. Check out their IG stories for some Filipino cultural love.
• Ruby Ibarra and Always Be My Maybe – My wife and I watched this movie and found it super fun. Ali Wong on her IG gave a shout-out to Ruby Ibarra for creating a song for the movie. Ruby Ibarra is a Filipino American rapper, music producer, and spoken word artist from San Lorenzo, California. She raps in Tagalog, Waray, and English.
• Usap tayo – is a blessing song created by Pastor Juliet Astrologo for the Philippine Bible Society’s 2019 National Bible Month Songwriting Contest.
• Yakan face filter – Kristian Kabuay of baybayin.com created an awesome IG face filter. Tanyak Tanyak is a face painting custom unique to Yakan tribal culture during muslim weddings. Try it out!
• A Music Video History of Asian America – Pacific Arts Movement created a 35 minute video of Asian Americans in music. Awkwafina, Rubi Ibarra, Japanese Breakfast, Linkin Park, MC Jin are big hitters and old favorites. But I got a lot out of hearing a lot of artists I didn’t know, ie Yellow Pearl, Satica. LA riots, Japanese internment camps, racism against Chinese and Filipino migrants, immigrant experiences– get your history on.

Art & Aesthetic

• Octopath Traveler – A beautiful 90s-style Japanese RPG on the Nintendo Switch. It’s fascinating to see that tilt shift fad in photography appear and then disappear and then reappear now but in a much more disciplined and tasteful approach!
• Cells at Work! – This is a Japanese manga and anime series featuring anthropomorphized cells of the human body– The two main protagonists being a red blood cell, and a neutrophil she frequently encounters. It’s ridiculous. And awesome.