Sonal Patel is a pediatrician, neonatologist, and breastfeeding specialist whose work centers on infant nutrition, early development, and maternal well-being in the fourth trimester. In 2018, she founded NayaCare, a home health clinic dedicated to improving postpartum care.
She has written widely on maternal and infant health, with articles published in Scary Mommy, KevinMD, and The Colorado Sun. She is also the author of The Doctor & Her Black Bag, which explores maternal mortality through historical and personal perspectives while offering solutions to reduce it. A TEDx speaker, she presented The Economics of the 4th Trimester.
She cofounded and serves as co-executive director of the Center for 4th Trimester Care, a physician-led national nonprofit working to transform maternal health care. She also recently cofounded Pulse Med AI to bring physician voices into the AI digital space.
Physicians need to demand a seat at the table in deciding how artificial intelligence is integrated into medicine. This is not a luxury or a branding slogan; it is a necessity. If physicians remain engaged, AI can become a powerful tool. If we disengage, we risk allowing others to define medicine on our behalf.
AI is already here. It is being used in documentation, diagnostics, risk prediction, imaging, scheduling, prior authorization, …
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Physicians must shape AI in medicine, not watch it
The FDA approval of Zurzuvae (zuranolone), the first oral medication, has offered new hope to mothers who have exhausted all other treatment options to cope with their postpartum depression. This is a milestone in recognizing the maternal mental health crisis that plagues our country. The benefit of this drug is that it offers a new approach to treating postpartum depression and brings postpartum health into the spotlight. With Zurzuvae …
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Zurzuvae: a beacon of hope for postpartum depression or a superficial solution?
Currently, there is an outcry against the pressures of breastfeeding, with an underlying backlash against the stigma of bottle feeding. Commercials from formula companies, such as Bobbie, are playing at the hearts of struggling breastfeeding mothers. Touted as an organic European formula comparable with breastmilk, Bobbie is the solution. Famous stars, like Queer Eye’s Tan France, emphatically narrate his decision on choosing formula over donor milk for their family. Over …
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Treating formula as medicine may increase breastfeeding rates
In 2018, then-Senator Kamala Harris introduced the Maternal CARE (Care Access and Reducing Emergencies) Act and added the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2020. Collectively, both pieces of legislation would create a task force to study sobering disparities in medical care based on race, combat racial implicit biases in the medical field, and close gaps in access to quality medical care for pregnant African American mothers. The impetus was …
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Can the Maternal CARE Act fail moms?
I ring the doorbell, waiting patiently outside. I hear a weak “coming” and some shuffling. Who greets me is a mother in her robe, hunched over at the waist, supporting her protruding postpartum belly. Her hair is disheveled. Her mask is revealing exhausted eyes with attempted mascara to look a “little freshened up,” she confesses a little later.
“My husband is just getting the baby; please come in.”
I proceed inside. I …
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Now is the time for postpartum home visits
I remember lying in my bed after my second delivery in severe pain. With my first delivery, I had already endured a C-section. Four years later, I wanted to experience a “natural” delivery, so I opted for a vaginal delivery after C-section (VBAC).
The VBAC quickly turned into an emergency where the maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) physician gave me two options: Get this baby out now or undergo an emergent C-section. My …
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Confessions of a bed-sharing pediatrician mom
