The Ditchdigger’s Daughters movie is scheduled to be re-broadcast this Sunday, July 11th at 5:30 pm (EDT), on BET. Get your TIVO out, if you haven’t seen it before.
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Media appearances
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The Ditchdigger’s Daughters on BET on July 11
Friday, July 9th, 2010Yvonne Thornton on the Dr. Nancy Show: Should Pregnant Girls Play Contact Sports?
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Today on Dr. Nancy, I was invited to appear to discuss a controversial issue. A young pregnant woman, whose high school took precautions against injury to her fetus by treating her differently than other girls on her volleyball team, has filed a complaint, claiming discrimination.
On the show, Dr. Nancy and I explained why this isn’t a discriminatory action but an appropriate one that protects the health of mother and fetus. Although some may not think of it this way, volleyball can be a contact sport. A player can get an elbow shoved into her abdomen when someone else reaches for the ball. A player can get pushed down on the court. There is always risk of injury but for most young women, the risk is minimal. Not so with a young pregnant woman. She risks harm to her fetus in the rough and tumble of such competitive sports.
While exercise is good for a pregnant woman’s health, contact sports are not, certainly not when the sorts of things we see happening in games have the potential to injure a fetus.
This isn’t a women’s rights issue. Dr. Nancy and I are both staunch defenders of women’s rights. It’s about keeping a baby and mother safe.
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
Should schools provide voluntary testing for STDs?
Friday, August 7th, 2009Yesterday, I was on Dr. Nancy’s noontime show on MSNBC, as one of two medical expert guests, to discuss whether schools should be permitted to offer voluntary testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to their students.
As you’ll see from the video, we three physicians (who are also all mothers) — Dr. Nancy, myself, and a doctor from the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin, Texas — agreed that this is a no-brainer. Of course, we should allow schools to offer voluntary testing for STDs.
Why should we test? Because, in a pilot program at eight high schools in the Washington, D.C. area, 13 percent of the teens who took advantage of voluntary testing were found to be infected, most often with chlamydia and gonorrhea. Chlamydia often causes no symptoms but, if left untreated, can lead to chronic pelvic pain due to pelvic inflammatory disease, an increase in ectopic (abnormal) pregnancy and infertility. Only by testing can we be certain to discover and treat it.
This does not mean we want our teens to be intimate at such a young age. But we must face the fact that, despite our best efforts, some are becoming intimate. And, because of this, some teens face the risk of sexually transmitted diseases that, if left untreated, can cause lifelong damage.
No one would be forced to get a test and no one is suggesting anything but that we make the tests available to kids who wish to know whether they’ve been exposed. If they fear that they are infected, we must give them a way to find out for sure so that they can get treatment.
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
A blast from my past
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009Those who read my first book, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, know that my parents, a blue-collar laborer and a domestic, valued education above all. They knew it was the way to a better life for their daughters.
But how did they find the money to put five girls through college, with four of us going on to get advanced degrees in medicine, dentistry and law?
We spent our weekends touring as The Thornton Sisters, playing for college dances, appearing at the Apollo, and recording records.
I’m writing the above because I just discovered that, 44 years after we recorded it, an old Thornton Sisters record is playing on YouTube. Who would have thought it?
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
A letter from a reader that touched my heart
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009I usually blog about women’s health but I wanted to depart a bit from that today because of a letter that a young woman named Jacinta sent me.
Jacinta read my memoir, The Ditchdigger’s Daughters, and found in the story the encouragement she needed to become a doctor herself. But let me allow her to tell it in her own words:
“I am 19 years old. I just finished reading your book and it truly inspired me. I want to work with children in the medical field and reading about the obstacles that you overcame to work in the medical field really encouraged me to work harder to accomplish my dream. The thing that really encouraged me was at the end of the book when you and your sisters were sitting around reminiscing about the things that your dad had taught you down through the years … ‘Daddy was the bow, we were the arrows and he aimed high. He didn’t say midwives, he said doctors. He didn’t say dental assistants, he said dentist.’ He always encouraged you all to be leaders and to be the best at whatever you did. That really stuck with me when I read it.
“I can be a leader. I love kids and I always knew that I wanted to work with them, but I never really decided how I wanted to work with them. So I decided that I would either be an obstetrician or a pediatrician.
“… I watched your interview on C-SPAN and I remember you saying that your father told you that the only person that can stop you is you. Well I’m not going to let me stop me so I decided to work towards all my dreams.”
As those who have already read The Ditchdigger’s Daughters know, my father was a blue collar laborer and my mother cleaned houses for a living. But they were determined to see their five daughters do better. They insisted that we work hard, get as much education as we could, and aim for the top. My father had a dream that we would all become doctors. Two of us are physicians now, one is an oral surgeon, another became a lawyer with a Ph.D., and one, a court reporter.
I want to take this opportunity to speak to all those like Jacinta, whose families may not have all the advantages. You can make a better life for yourself. If my sisters and I could do it, you can do it. Believe in yourself and be willing to work harder than you ever imagined possible. Then, work harder still. Stay in school, study like your life depends on it (because, in a way, it does), and don’t let anything hold you back, especially not your own negative notions about the limits placed on you from the outside.
And I want to say thank you to Jacinta. Knowing that my book touched you means so much to me.
It’s letters like yours that have inspired me to begin working on a new memoir that picks up where The Ditchdigger’s Daughters left off. I hope that this book, too, will persuade readers to reach higher, study harder, and pursue their dreams.
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
More media attention for the study
Friday, June 5th, 2009Forbes reports on my study, showing that obese pregnant women should limit weight gain as does Medline.
Other media outlets giving the study prominent coverage are United Press International, Yahoo News, The Baltimore Sun, US News and World Report, and even the Times of India.
- Yvonne S. Thornton
My study on obesity and pregnancy in the news
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009I’m pleased to see that the media is getting the word out: obese pregnant women should be eating healthier diets and limiting their weight gain.
In the past few days, I’ve been interviewed by a number of news organizations about the study. You can see some of the reports at the following links:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
and Health Day
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH
My interview with Bob Salter of WXRK
Monday, June 1st, 2009This weekend, Bob Salter of WXRK radio, interviewed me about my memoir, THE DITCHDIGGER’S DAUGHTERS, and about my new study, showing that obese pregnant women should gain little or no weight. You can download the interview here. I’ll have more on this blog about the study, tomorrow.
- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH