Obesity in Pregnancy Clinic Introduced

Release Date: 10/01/2012

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is now a common condition that affects up to one in four pregnant women. Research has shown that obesity during pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased risk of maternal and fetal complications, resulting in a greater use of inpatient and outpatient health care services, increased length of hospital stays for delivery, greater use of physician services, and decreased use of services by nurse practitioners and physician assistants during prenatal visits.

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island now offers an Obesity in Pregnancy Clinic as part of the hospital’s Integrated Program for High-Risk Pregnancy. A collaboration between the divisions of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetric and Consultative Medicine, the multidisciplinary team also includes an exercise physiologist and a nutritionist who will be present at all clinic sessions. A behavioral psychologist, bariatric surgeon and anesthesiologist will also be joining this clinical service over the next year.

 

“Obesity during pregnancy can lead to multiple complications for the mom, including hemorrhage, thromboembolism, infection, type 2 diabetes, pregnancy-induced hypertension or preeclampsia, and need for emergent cesarean delivery,” said Katharine D. Wenstrom, co-director of the Obesity in Pregnancy Clinic and director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.“The fetuses of obese mothers are at increased risk of intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), stillbirth, or early neonatal death; fetal anomalies; fetal intolerance of labor; preterm birth; macrosomia and shoulder dystocia; and meconium aspiration syndrome.”

 

Kenneth K. Chen, MD, co-director of the Obesity in Pregnancy Clinic and director of the Division of Obstetric and Consultative Medicine, explained, “It’s vital that these women and their babies receive the proper care to ensure a safe outcome for all. Through our clinic, we will provide pre-conception counseling and active intervention for obese women who wish to lose weight before they conceive. For women who are already pregnant, we will work with their own obstetric provider for either a one-time consultation or co-management of the patient throughout her pregnancy, or, if specifically requested by the provider, transition of the patient’s care to the Integrated Program for High-Risk Pregnancy.”

 

The Clinic will offer appointments at Women & Infants’ Center for Women’s Medicine, 100 Dudley Street, 3rd Floor, Providence. Referrals and appointments may be made by calling (401) 453-7545 or (401) 453-7950.

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.