About half the Dartmouth student population is "prepregnant," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recently released guidelines urging all women capable of conceiving a child to consider themselves potentially pregnant and to take health precautions formerly prescribed only to pregnant women, regardless of whether or not they intend to have children. The federal guidelines warn that nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned and emphasize the need for women to consider "preconception care" to prevent the substantial damage that a fetus can suffer before a mother realizes she is pregnant. According to the CDC all women between their first menstrual period and menopause should take daily folic acid supplements, limit certain foods in their diets, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and regularly visit a doctor to discuss preconception care. The CDC hopes that these precautions will help lower the infant mortality rate, which is currently higher in the United States than in most other industrialized countries.
The Dartmouth Medical School has begun sending students to the Hood Museum of Art in the hope that studying paintings and sculptures will improve the student's observational faculties when diagnosing patients. "I learned to be mindful when I am making assumptions, interpretations or just observations," one DMS student said. Joe O' Donnell, a senior advising dean at the DMS, worked with DMS professor Stephen Plume, Hood Director Brian Kennedy and Vivian Ladd and Lesley Wellman in the Hood's education department to design the program. "What a wonderful group," Ladd said after working with the DMS students. "There is no way they are going to go on to become cold and distant doctors."
