Health Wanted: Stillbirths
Health Wanted, a weekly radio show and podcast produced in collaboration with WABE, brings need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics.
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The Episode
When you’re expecting, you might hear all about the ways your body will change, the size of your baby compared to various fruits, the weird cravings people have, or even the old wives' tales to induce labor. But there’s one topic that’s often hushed until after it's happened.
This week on Health Wanted, we’re talking about stillbirth: a pregnancy outcome that’s seldom discussed.
The Listener Questions
Do drug testing strips from Amazon actually work?
Fentanyl test strips from amazon can be legit. But just like everything on the site, there are likely some cheap knock-offs, so you need to make sure you’re buying from a vetted seller.
Brands like DanceSafe and BTNX (also known as Rapid Response) are good.You can also get the strips from sellers directly, and depending on what state you’re in you can sometimes get them from the local health department.
It’s important to make sure you buy the correct test strips, because some are for urine testing rather than testing substances before you use them. And some strips only test for fentanyl, when there are other substances being used to adulterate drugs.
Be careful though, and know your state’s regulations about carrying testing equipment. Some states count it as drug paraphernalia and therefore make it illegal to have.
Is it possible to DNA test cremains?
Unfortunately, getting DNA from cremains is very difficult and unlikely. That, of course, does not stop companies from selling the service and hiding a disclaimer deep in their FAQs stating they know it’s unlikely. It’s because the extreme heat that’s used in cremation destroys all DNA in soft tissue, so the only potential place to get DNA would be from teeth or bones, and even those are likely to have been severely degraded by the temperatures used.
The most important thing is to make sure you have trust and faith in your cremation provider, or whoever is holding on to the cremains for a period of time, because there’s not much you can do after the fact.
Catch all the listener questions and Laurel’s answers on the full episode of Health Wanted by:
- Streaming at wabe.org or the WABE app
- Subscribing on Apple or Spotify
- Watching on WABE's YouTube channel
Show Notes
Want to dive deeper into this week's topic? Find Laurel's sources here.
- Stillbirths: Rates, Risk Factors, and Acceleration Towards 2030
- Stillbirth: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Disparities
- National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 75, Number 6
- What You Need to Know About Stillbirths
- After a Stillbirth, an Autopsy Can Provide Answers. Too Few of Them Are Being Performed.
- Diagnostic Tests for Evaluation of Stillbirth: Results From the Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network
- Potentially Preventable Stillbirth in a Diverse U.S. Cohort
- Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Risk of Stillbirth in Singleton Pregnancies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- IVF and Stillbirth: A Prospective Follow-Up Study
- Association Between Stillbirth and Risk Factors Known at Pregnancy Confirmation
- Causes of Death Among Stillbirths
- Fusing Stillbirth Parent Advocacy and Epidemiology to Address the U.S. Stillbirth Crisis
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