Your Pregnancy Questions, Answered
Students’ podcast is a new local source for maternal health information. BY JONATHAN GARRIS
Two Brown medical students are doing their part to empower and inform pregnant women with a biweekly podcast designed to improve maternal health.
Ashley Houlihan and Malia Perales are in their third season of hosting Rhode to Pregnancy, with episodes covering gestational diabetes, fatigue, ultrasounds, and more. Both are interested in specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and created the podcast to help fill in educational gaps that many women face during pregnancy.
“ Even with all of the resources and funding that we have, the US has a much higher rate of morbidity and mortality among pregnant women. We were brainstorming ways that we, as medical students, could help contribute to improving a small part of that,” Houlihan says.“ During a time when many people are looking to social media for health information, we thought a podcast would be a great way to meet people where they’ re at.”
The podcast is designed to track with the gestational cycle, Perales says. The first season’ s episodes tackle first trimester issues, while the second season covered second trimester topics like headache, dizziness, genetic screening, and ultrasound procedures.
“ We’ re continuing that into the third trimester in season 3, and season 4 will touch on postpartum care,” Perales says.
The students, who record at Brown’ s main campus library, use AI to translate the episodes into Spanish, with funding from the Petersen Education Enhancement Fund. In addition to their faculty
adviser, Martha Kole White, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, clinician educator at The Warren Alpert Medical School, Houlihan and Perales’ guests have included experts in maternal nutrition, genetic testing, and vaccines.
“ We’ ve also tried to cover current things that have been discussed on social media and in the news,” Houlihan says.“ When the news came out about [ US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’ s ] claims about Tylenol use during pregnancy leading to autism, we were able to bring in a specialist who had done a lot of research about it.”( See story, page 3.)
The range of guests and topics is important, Perales says, because appointments with doctors can be short, and patients sometimes don’ t have time to discuss all their concerns.
“ People don’ t always feel empowered to ask questions. They might not know
Malia Perales( left) and Ashley Houlihan.
what to ask, they could feel judged, or could feel misunderstood, so they turn to platforms like TikTok where, unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there,” Perales says.
Houlihan and Perales are using Instagram to get the word out about Rhode to Pregnancy and build relationships in the community. Another medical student and a pre-med student at Brown have joined the podcast. And they have reached out to health specialists and local organizations to help expand their reach and their subject matter.
“ Our hope is to continue this and keep directing people to resources within the community for more help while navigating their pregnancy journeys,” Houlihan says.“ We are always open to more collaboration.” HD @ B
You can find the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts by searching“ Rhode to Pregnancy.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF RHODE TO PREGNANCY.
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