Diary of an academic mum

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD). WARNING: Too much information for some people in some sections. Read with caution 😮 My daughter, Abby, is my first child and this was my first pregnancy. Abby arrived 2 weeks early on September 13, 2019, weighing 2.94kg and measuring 47.5cm. At 8pm on September 11, 2019, my waters spontaneously broke. Unlike what I thought, it doesn't just come in one gush (Image 1). I had at least 6 gushes over 2 hours (RIP 3x pants and undies!). This happened only 30 minutes after seeing the beginning of my mucus plug dislodge. I thought I was going to have much more time between these two events, wrong! So off to the hospital we went for confirmation that Abby was indeed on her way. The midwives were happy and the plan was to go home, let labour start, and to visit the hospital daily for monitoring. Image 1: What I thought my waters breaking would be like (credit: Reddit ) The next day we visited the hospital. Everything ...

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD). Dr Breanne Kunstler, Associate Professor  Peter Bragge ​ and Ms  Alyse Lennox ​ recently published their rapid evidence and practice review called ' Changing prescribing behaviours with educational outreach: An overview of evidence and practice ' in BMC Medical Education. Please share this review using these  Twitter  or  LinkedIn  links. Picture this... Your mother slipped on some icy concrete last week and fell, fracturing her arm in two places. You hated seeing her in pain and you were very pleased when her GP promptly referred her to an orthopaedic surgeon who booked her in for surgery and gave her some pain medication. You were especially pleased to know that her GP gave her a couple of repeats for the medication the surgeon prescribed, just in case she needed them. Poor mum. Now let's talk about the  opioid epidemic . An opioid is a strong medica...