Forlorn, with tears
Maternl, my personal website, shares an ageless journey to heal when we cannot cure: the ultimate challenge to the bond between patient and doctor.
Maternl recognizes and addresses as its overlying mission the care, attention and empathies required when parents experience the loss of a child through miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Furthermore, Maternl stives to be a paradigm for the care and healing for all patients when we cannot cure; the ultimate challenge to the bond between patient and doctor.
Maternl reflects my career as a physician, an obstetrician, and introduces my personal philosophy and original poetry which above all enables me to ask why even when we already understand how. Poetry permits me as a doctor of medicine, witness to the frailties of our humanity, to abet healing through the very core of what makes us human; our language and our personal emotions.
I believe that we who have taken the "Oath" to practice our sacred profession of medicine and we who have committed ourselves to the healing
arts must do so with the imperative to respect the sanctity of health for all those we treat - with a sense of high privilege-for they are the
flesh and blood and souls of our humanity - past, present and future - and we, by our choice, their guardians. Here at Maternl, I, through my writings, poems,
personal thoughts and unique programs strive to promote these tenets.
Request and Receive a Personalized Poem
Maternl is founded on a model of care I have practiced throughout my career; the use of language to help the grieving and healing process:
words we write, words we read, and words we say and hear to serve as an invaluable source of solace and hope. I believe our words are songs
from our hearts: "songs of hope and songs for hope." I have written and continue to write words and thoughts in letters of condolence when my
patients have experienced a pregnancy, newborn or infant loss and include a personalized, original poem which I either send to them and / or
at their memorial services / funerals. This program permts you to obtain a personalized, original poem to memorialize, honor or pay tribute
Amare
And cries, am I.
To lose you to your death
Without but even gasp or sigh,
Save a wisp of Angels breath;
The darkest sorrow
I have known.
Yet, your image burnt in my
Soul is my gift, my grace,
And always will I see your face
Upon the simmer of
Placid ponds
And in the clouds where
Sunbeams hide
And raindrops form,
And I will speak kind words
And write of you
And sing in sweet demure,
In early morning's dew
And in the crown of daffodils
Which bloom amidst the storms
Swept cross my brow,
In every dream
In which it seems
You come to me.
My love forever
Do I avow.
GetCare (Get the Healthcare You Deserve)
Through this portal, GetCare provides the user with easy access to a database of geographic-specific Federally
personalized letter of introduction for the user to the health care facility they select as one who needs help
with their care, much like patients have a letters of referral to a doctor from another doctor. By having this
introduction to prenatal care services GetCare addresses the lack of an advocate / provider, the lack of awareness
of local healthcare facilities offering maternal and child health care services including prenatal care, a lack of
understanding of the need for pre-natal care, albeit early care, the late diagnosis, recognition and acceptance of
ones pregnancy, embarrassment and denial, and perhaps, shame, diminished self worth and dignity and a feeling of
isolation without a place or professional to turn to for immediate care, counseling and accompanying advocacy.
The letter itself is not a referral but an introduction. This service can be easily linked to local and regional
social services so families in need can have their support as well.
Here you will fnd my most recent contributions as I continue to write and share with my readers and students.
I received my Doctor of Medicine Degree from New York Medical College and my Masters Degree in
Biomedical Informatics from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with an area of concentration
on Personal Health Records.1 I completed my Post Graduate Residency Training in Obstetrics and
Gynecology and one year fellowship in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and
Yale New Haven Hospital.
From 2016-2020, I was Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science
and Associate Dean for Quality and Patient Safety for Graduate Medical Education at the Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief Patient Safety Officer and Ombuds at the Mount Sinai Health System in New
York, New York.
Prior to joining the faculty at Mount Sinai, I was in Clinical Practice in Obstetrics and
Gynecology and Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School
of Medicine. In 1995, I founded the Hygeia Foundation for Perinatal Loss and Bereavement 2
(now Hope After Loss) and am the author of numerous poems and essays documenting the human condition. I am also author of
the book, Parenthood Lost, Healing the Pain After Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Death.
In 2012, I joined the faculty and attending staff of the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center as the
medical director of the Labor and Delivery Unit. I implemented the hospital's first full-time laborist
program, which provided a structured, collaborative, patient-centric approach to improving the quality,
safety, and patient experience on the labor floor. In 2017, I was appointed Chief Patient Safety Officer for
Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and Associate Dean for Quality and Patient Safety in Graduate
Medical Education. In this role, I led efforts at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and
the Health System to meet the goals of the Clinical Learning Environment Review Program developed by
the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education.
I do not know
Even strangers from afar know of you
and the aura of your birth,
the darkened hope and hue
of stormy clouds that shadow streaming light,
and know the flawless shards of love
disguised in tear drops crying day and night
one by one, gleaned tears from loving faces
reach towards pinnacles of immortality and
makes us all believe that as the paces
of heart beats breach life itself,
love too ascends, cast heavenly
upon rainbows and shooting stars,
our gifts to comfort for eternity.
And in the longer nights of winter's liar,
your beauty can be seen by all
and in the frozen air where bellowed
breaths of hope inspire.
Though today it lives, a chrysalis,
laced in grief and pain,
one day it will awaken
when winters' snows spur springtime rain,
and fuse sadder thoughts with memories
while distant smiles will bind
eternal love with hope and promise,
even strangers from afar can find.
