The Birth of a Family

Abstract

Participating in the care of a couple’s pregnancy and the birth of a baby is one of the most rewarding experiences for family-oriented physicians. Physicians have an opportunity to have a major impact on patients and their families during this critical stage of family development. During pregnancy, the physician has extended contact with the family and usually becomes a trusted consultant (1). Families rely on their physician for most of their information about the pregnancy (2). Family-oriented pregnancy care builds upon traditional obstetrical care, providing an integrated approach that attends to the psychosocial needs of the woman and the family as well as the biomedical aspects of the pregnancy. In addition to the rewards of attending deliveries, the family-oriented physician who practices obstetrics can have a more varied and challenging practice and provides more pediatric, gynecological, and surgical care than those who do not practice obstetrics (3).