On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Dr. Kameelah Phillips on the show to discuss optimizing health during pregnancy.  Dr. Kameelah Phillips is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, wife, mother, and lifelong women’s health advocate.  Since high school, she has been involved in local, national, and international organizations aimed at advancing women’s health care issues through advocacy and direct patient care. In this episode, we discuss: -The impacts of COVID-19 on pregnancy and post-partum -Factors that impact the United States’ maternal mortality rates -Six ways to optimize your health during pregnancy -The importance of interprofessional collaboration -And so much more!   Resources: Calla Women's Health Website Dr. Kameelah Phillips Instagram Calla Women's Health Instagram   A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode!  Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here.     For more information on Dr. Phillips: Dr. Kameelah Phillips is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, wife, mother, and lifelong women’s health advocate.  Since high school, she has been involved in local, national, and international organizations aimed at advancing women’s health care issues through advocacy and direct patient care. Dr. Phillips graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology with an emphasis in Women’s Health and Human Sexuality. After graduation, she worked at the San Francisco Department of Public Health in the AIDS office as a Research Assistant on HIV vaccine studies.  She relocated to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. During medical school, she received numerous community service awards. She was privileged to travel to Ghana, Cuba, and Tanzania on health missions during this time. Upon completion of medical school, she attended a competitive OB/GYN residency at the New York University School of Medicine. She also served on an emergency medical mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to provide women’s health care during the 2010 earthquake.  Dr. Phillips is an educator, mentor, and expert in women’s health issues.   She loves to help women and girls feel comfortable with their bodies, so that they can be aware of changes or new developments.  Her interests include Minority Women's Health and health care disparities, lactation, sexual and menopause medicine.  Dr. Phillips is a member of the International Board of Lactation Consultants and speaks Spanish. She enjoys teaching residents and medical students. Her guilty pleasures include reality T.V.   As a Real World Alumnae, she has used this platform to travel nationwide to discuss domestic violence, smoking cessation, and other health-related issues.  She loves a good bargain, flowers, and deep-tissue massages. You can follow her on Instagram @drkameelahsays   Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy (00:01): Hi, Dr. Phillips, welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to have you on. And this is the first time I'm having an OB GYN on the program. I've had lots of physical therapists who work with women's health and pelvic health. So this is really exciting to get a different point of view on women's health and on pelvic health. And now, before we get into the meat of the interview, we are still living in a pandemic, COVID-19 is still here. It has not mysteriously disappeared or vanished. And so there are a lot of women who are getting pregnant, who are living through pregnancy at this time and who might be a little nervous, a little concerned about what can happen during their pregnancy is COVID affected. So what I would love for you is any advice for those pregnant women in the time of COVID? Kameelah Phillips (00:58): Yeah, absolutely. You know, one thing I really try and impress on patients that is absolutely unique to OB GYN is despite what's going on in the world, whatever chaos is going on, women still have babies women still go into labor. Women still