For Patients and Visitors
What is the Service?
We provide an inpatient service that is open to all pregnant women (or within 6 weeks post-partum) with a medical issue and ensure co-ordinated and consistent care alongside your midwife and obstetrician with the safe use of medications for mother and baby. We also provide an outpatient service that is open to any woman with medical issues who either wishes to plan for pregnancy or who is pregnant and requires follow up and co-ordinated medical and obstetric care. Furthermore, we offer follow up post-partum to all women we have helped care for throughout pregnancy and inform their General Practitioners and Specialists of any complications or evidence of future risks that became evident throughout pregnancy.
What can I expect from the service?
You will have access to outpatient clinics with an Obstetric Medicine physician who will liaise with your midwife and obstetrician. In lower risk pregnancies you may need to visit us only one or twice throughout your entire pregnancy, but in higher risk pregnancies the clinic visits can be scheduled more frequently if that is required to keep you and your baby healthy. Issues that arise in pregnancy are discussed with your midwife and obstetrician regularly.
If you are admitted as an inpatient we will continue to be involved in your care ensuring that there is consistency of plans for maternal medical issues throughout your pregnancy.
What do I bring/need for my appointment?
Please bring all your current medications to the appointment and a list of previous medications. If you have any recent radiology reports please bring them as well.
Contact us
To enquire about your referral:
Phone: 8405 8335
For other enquiries:
You can contact the Medical Obstetrics Registrar through the switchboard of Northern Health on 8405 8000.
For Health Professionals
Service Overview
The Medical Obstetrics unit at Northern Health has been operating since 2017. Northern Health is a level 5 maternity hospital with neonatal support from 31.5 weeks gestation. The Medical Obstetric unit works in conjunction with obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine and midwives at Northern Health across all three campuses at Epping, Craigieburn and Broadmeadows. The unit consists of internal medicine specialists with specific training in Obstetric Medicine (accredited by the Society of Obstetric Medicine of Australia and New Zealand) as well as General Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Haematology, Nephrology and Sexual Health. We work closely with our colleagues in Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases, Neurology and Rheumatology when women require further specialist input.
We have a 24 hour 7 days per week inpatient and consultative service, with a dedicated registrar and intern and consultant led ward rounds. Thus we admit patients who primarily require medical input and assist with those that are specific to pregnancy such as hyperemesis, cholestasis of pregnancy or hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
Currently we have two general medical obstetric clinics with links further links to the existing obstetric endocrine and obstetric hematology clinics. The general medical obstetric clinics are designed to enable providing pre-conception counselling, antenatal management of medical conditions (pre-existing or pregnancy related) and post-partum follow up of issues that arose during pregnancy. We aim to provide antenatal and post-partum medical care for women in conjunction with their GPs or other specialists. We can provide advice as to the safe use of medications throughout pregnancy, address concerns in planning for future pregnancies and the implications for future maternal health after any pregnancy related medical issues have resolved.
Inclusion criteria:
- Women with chronic medical conditions who are pregnant or planning pregnancy.
- Women who develop a medical problem during pregnancy
- Including pregnancy specific conditions
- And/or who require medical follow up within 6 weeks post partum
Exclusion criteria:
- Greater than 6 weeks post partum
- Patients with only diabetes and/or thyroid issues should be referred to the obstetric endocrinology clinic
How to Refer:
All referrals to Northern Health should be sent via fax to:
Fax: 8405 8616
Referral must include:
- A list of medical conditions and any recent pertinent investigations
- A list of current medications and allergies
Director/Head of Unit:
Dr David Langsford – via Northern Health switchboard 8405 8000
Enquiries:
For urgent enquiries please contact the Medical Obstetrics Registrar or Consultant on-call through switchboard on 8405 8000
