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The number of criminal charges brought against people for using drugs during their pregnancies is rising in Oklahoma; a trend doctors say is rooted in a misunderstanding of how drug use affects pregnancy.

Research has shown at least 25 percent of stillbirths — 47 percent at term — could be averted. But unlike all these other risks that parents hear much more about, when it comes to stillbirth, no one is empowering families to keep their babies safe.

Dr. Harvey Kliman never thought he’d spend his life studying the hidden secrets of the placenta, but here he is, doing just that, and loving every moment. This Yale University physician scientist is my guest this week on Oh Baby!, and brings to our conversation the many wonders of the placenta, revealing that it is derived from the father (), that a small placenta is the leading cause of stillbirth, and that the number of folds in a placenta can determine whether a baby has a high chance of autism. Plus, whether eating your placenta is actually beneficial (or whether you should carry it around on a staff!) This episode deals with heavy matters, but is lighthearted too.

We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. But this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And right on the front lines of that battle is another major player on the stage of pregnancy that not a single person on the planet would be here without. An entirely new organ: the placenta.

How a Yale Medicine doctor changed a patient's life by providing an explanation for her miscarriages.

Dr. Harvey Kliman discovered and created the Endometrial Function Test. He is Director of the Reproductive and Placental Research Unit at Yale and focuses his research on infertility and pregnancy complications. In addition to his research and teaching activities at Yale, he also consults with Physicians to evaluate complicated cases related to pregnancy loss, and poor pregnancy outcomes. I'm honored to have him join me today on The Egg Whisperer Show to talk about the EFT, the endometrium, and everything you need to know about implantation.

A recent study shows that abnormal development is controlled by the genetics of the fetus and placenta, rather than the intrauterine environment.

As a student at Yale, Julia Katz, a former Yale undergraduate who is now a medical student at Hofstra University, had wrestled with considerable guilt about her twin. She and her brother Jesse are non-identical twins. But Jesse was born underweight with several congenital abnormalities. “She literally felt that she had done this to her brother,” said Dr. Harvey Kliman, a research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine.

My guest on Episode 39 of Shattered Conception is Dr. Harvey Kliman who has, in addition to an M.D., holds a Ph.D. in cellular biochemistry from the University of Chicago. He is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine and the Director of the Reproductive and Placental Research Unit with a special interest in infertility, pregnancy complications, pregnancy loss(es) and stillbirth.