Best Specializes in Obstetrics and Gynecologist

An obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN) is a physician who incorporates medical and surgical care to women and has a high level of expertise in pregnancy, childbirth and the health of the reproductive system. Requiring years of training and preparation, becoming an OB/GYN is both challenging and rewarding. Obstetricians are physicians who have specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN). The most common education pathway to become a physician requires two degrees for a total of 8 years of education beyond high school. The first degree is usually a Bachelor of Sciences from an accredited four-year college or university, followed by four-year Doctorate degrees of Medicine or Osteopathic Medicine.

However, the education does not stop there. All physicians, including obstetricians, must complete a one-year post-graduate program of internship. As a medical specialty, obstetrics requires a minimum of an additional four-year training program called a residency.

Every woman, throughout her life, will have many questions about how to best manage her health. Each stage in a woman’s life brings with it specific issues, including decisions about routine care, birth control, fertility, pregnancy and menopause. Women need to feel as if they have a trusted advocate and partner to help them navigate the often confusing messages that abound about women’s health.

Johns Hopkins offers a full spectrum of women's health care services - from yearly checkup and prenatal care to specialized gynecologic care. Our physicians are respected experts in all areas of women’s health.

Our physicians’ wide-range of expertise coupled with our state-of-the-art technology and world-renowned research that affects patient care across the globe makes Johns Hopkins the obvious partner for protecting and preserving your health - at any age.

Identification

An obstetrician is a medical doctor who specializes in caring for pregnant women. He cares for pregnant women throughout pregnancy and during labor. He also provides care for mothers right after childbirth.

Obstetrics is the care of the pregnant mother and her baby pre- and perinatally. In many areas it overlaps with gynaecology.

Until 1992, a gynaecological problem would only become an obstetric one at 28 weeks gestation when the fetus was considered to be viable. However, with modern neonatal care a fetus can be viable at 24 weeks and the law and its definitions changed on 1 October 1992 to reflect this.

Modern practice asks pregnant mothers to book - ie to register with a hospital obstetrician - as early as 12 weeks. Thus when a patient should be discharged from a gynaecologist to an obstetrician is fairly artificial, and is reflected in the professional qualification in this field, which requires practitioners to be, at least in theory, both obstetricians and gynaecologists.

In some circumstances, an obstetric condition may have been included in the gynaecology section of the database where overlap occurs between the specialties. Users are advised to use the Search facility if they have difficulty in finding the appropriate section.