The curriculum for maternity care is multifaceted, combining longitudinal, rotational, didactic, and community-based learning. The obstetrical experience at UPMC Shadyside is a prime example of the flexibility of the program. Furthermore, the Family Medicine Residency Program focuses on developing a family-centered approach to maternity care on the Family Medicine obstetrics rotations in collaboration with Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC.
Patient-Centered Medical Home
Our program offers a unique model of maternity care with our Prenatal Group Visits, a PCMH (Patient-Centered Medical Home) Model: “Preventing Preterm Birth One at A Time.” Centering Pregnancy is a stand-alone healthcare model that is an evidence-based, cost-effective, and a patient-centered model of care. It replaces the traditional one-on-one visits and promotes a group model. Currently, there are only 19 Centering Sites in the State of Pennsylvania and only two Centering Sites in Pittsburgh. As a Shadyside Hospital Foundation Grant Recipient in 2014, we are currently the first and only Family Medicine FHC Centering Pregnancy in Pittsburgh and remains the only Centering Pregnancy in the entire UPMC System. We launched our Centering Pregnancy on World Prematurity Day, November 17, 2014, at the Shadyside Family Health Center, participating for the first time in the international campaign to raise awareness on Preterm Birth with our patients and our community.
Family Medicine FHC Centering Pregnancy
Our Centering Pregnancy Program, which we have been successfully implementing for the past 7 years focuses on Group Prenatal Visits and Preventing Preterm Births. “ As we continue to raise awareness on the importance of Preterm Birth, and the positive impact it has had on our pregnant patients despite the challenges of Covid, we were recently awarded 1st Place at UPMC Shadyside Hospital: The Best Innovative Quality Improvement Project in 2021 at the Quality and Patient Safety Fair with our Pilot Research Project on Fourth Trimester Care: CENTERING PREGNANCY “May the 4th Be With You” Prenatal Group Visits and PCMH Model: “Preventing Preterm Birth One Woman At A Time. This award recognizes creativity, teamwork, and/or alternative or inventive practices in implementing cost-saving strategies while maintaining or improving quality.
Faculty
UPMC Shadyside has six family medicine faculty who teach prenatal and maternity care, and two faculty that actively practice obstetrics, one of whom is fellowship trained in Obstetrics and Women’s Health. This mix allows for collaboration and co-management of more high-risk obstetric patients. Residents are encouraged to interact with obstetricians, doulas, and labor nurses to aid in developing their own "personal style" of providing maternity care. The use of birthing balls, intermittent monitoring, and nitrous oxide are all used during labor and delivery at Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC.
Federally Qualified Health Centers
UPMC Shadyside follows a continuity care model of obstetric care where residents follow their own patients at UPMC Shadyside Family Health Center throughout the pregnancy through delivery and post-partum and well infant care. Residents also can provide prenatal care and delivery of patients from close collaborations at community and Federally Qualified Health Centers. Patients from Squirrel Hill Health Center, East Liberty Family Health Care Center, East End Community Health Center, and Matilda Theis Health Center really appreciate these relationships.
Residents will spend four weeks each year during the first two years of residency on labor and delivery at Magee-Women’s Hospital of UPMC. For those with an interest in pursuing obstetrics, rotations are available at out-of-town hospitals that have high volumes of deliveries. High volume OB Elective Rotations at Magee are available for our OB Interested Residents where they are a part of the Obstetrics Team during their third year.
The flexibility of this curriculum allows some residents to fulfill the minimum RRC requirement for deliveries while others pursue a more high-volume experience. The number of deliveries will depend on each resident's desires, goals, and aspirations for OB practice. All residents complete the ALSO course, are encouraged to learn obstetric ultrasound (with our POCUS: Point of care Ultrasound Curriculum) and first assisting on C-sections.
Lectures, case presentations, precepting, grand rounds, and community outreach activities regularly address issues in obstetrics and prenatal health care.