Kim M. Puterbaugh is an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Unthinkable choices in childbirth emergencies

Conditions and Diseases
September 18, 2023

Firefighters and doctors stand beside you on your worst days. On our best days, we help you sidestep disaster. On our worst days, we make gruesome decisions, so you don’t have to.

Andrea’s family barely survived the pandemic. Her husband lost his job and her beloved grandmother lost her life. But after years of setbacks, today was move-in day.

The seaside bungalow was not as big as she’d hoped, but still perfect. …

Read more…

Unthinkable choices in childbirth emergencies

Post-Roe, miscarriage is more dangerous

Physician
July 23, 2022

If guilt were an Olympic sport, mothers would win every medal. We worry we should have prevented our children’s problems or might have even caused them. Mothers tiptoe through a minefield of complex personal, family, and societal expectations that no one escapes unscathed.

As an OB/GYN resident, I sought extra training to care for mothers experiencing miscarriage and stillbirth. Miscarriage occurs in 1 in 4 pregnancies due to early genetic Read more…

Post-Roe, miscarriage is more dangerous

For the first time, my job has betrayed me

Conditions and Diseases
April 4, 2020

I miss going to work feeling excited, inspired, determined, frustrated, and exhausted. Being a doctor has been my magnetic north since I was ten, the longest relationship of my life. It’s who I am, what I’m called, how I spend my waking hours, what makes my family most proud of me, and my first love.

Now I go to work terrified. I cannot sleep the night before I am on call. …

Read more…

For the first time, my job has betrayed me

We are OB/GYNs: What you need to know

Physician
June 14, 2019

We care for girls and women, pregnant or not.

If you are two years old and put something in your girl parts and it disappears, we get it out.

We care for two patients at once. We balance how pregnancy impacts you and how you impact your pregnancy.

We watch over you and your baby throughout labor and delivery, so you can focus on creating a human.

We care for older women whose laughter …

Read more…

We are OB/GYNs: What you need to know

The perfect birth plan can change. And it often does.

Conditions and Diseases
September 10, 2016

When a patient arrives in labor and delivery clutching her birth plan, I’ll admit, I want to escape immediately to a remote, uninhabited island with no modern form of communication. I’d crate the carrier pigeons, too, just to be safe.

Many of us who deliver babies have an unshakable belief that women with birth plans unlock Pandora’s nether regions, releasing a huge flock of horrifying Kraken. The Kraken takes perverse glee …

Read more…

The perfect birth plan can change. And it often does.

Impossible choices: The haunting decisions patients and doctors face

Physician
August 21, 2016

I was home free: in my final year of medical school, with one last rotation to finish. I had matched into a residency in obstetrics. The tsunami of stress that loomed over the past year — choosing a specialty, interviewing all over the country, waiting for the life-altering but fickle match — had passed. I knew where I was going and what I was doing.

Our end-of-the-year show was fast approaching. …

Read more…

Impossible choices: The haunting decisions patients and doctors face

Sage advice to new medical residents

Medical Education
July 24, 2016

A letter to my nephew, who is just starting residency.

There will be days ahead when patients will bring you their most prized and flawed possessions — their broken bodies, their flagging spirits, their waning hope.  They will wonder: “Can I get back to my loved ones, my life, my dreams?  Will you help me? Do you care?”

You will not have all the answers, though you will have read a forest …

Read more…

Sage advice to new medical residents