Approximately 2,500 obstetric deliveries occur at George Washington University Hospital per year, 90% of which are performed with a regional anesthetic. All CA1 residents rotate for one month on the Obstetrical Anesthesia service with further clinical experience derived from overnight call in labor and delivery and a CA3 senior rotation.
Through a structured lecture series and clinical teaching, residents learn about maternal physiology and pharmacology, fetal assessment, maternal disease states and high risk pregnancy, local anesthetic pharmacology, and management of obstetric emergencies. Residents become adept at regional anesthetic techniques, management of labor analgesia, and management of anesthesia for elective and emergency cesarean section at our Society of Obstetric Anesthesiology and Perinatology Center of Excellence.
Since two thirds of our obstetric population is designated "high-risk," residents have the opportunity to care for complicated patients with a variety of disease states including preeclampsia/eclampsia, morbid obesity, and multiple gestation.
