What kind of doctor do you see if you have a medical complication in pregnancy? My primary care doctor is not used to pregnant women and my obstetrician is trained to deal with pregnancy, not medical problems.
The answer is an obstetric medicine internist. These doctors, though rare, see pregnant women with medical problems in pregnancy. These problems can be illnesses that you would see your regular primary care doctor for such as a sinus infection or back pain or could be diseases that need a highly specialized doctor such as lupus or a heart problem.
Dr. Beth Lewis at Saint Peters University Hospital Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine is one of these doctors. She studied medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, did a residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and a fellowship in women’s health at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Afterwards, Dr. Lewis joined the division of Obstetric Medicine at Saint Peters University Hospital which was the only such division in the tri-state area. More recently, Dr Lewis joined with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Division in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Saint Peters University Hospital. There Dr Lewis continues to practice this unique type of medicine which combines the expertise of an internist and the comfort of working with pregnant patients who require an understanding of using medications in pregnancy and the effect of a particular disease on a pregnancy.
Dr Lewis evaluates and treats patients with diseases such as:
- Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes.
- Thyroid Disease, Pituitary Disorders
- Hypertension
- Lupus and other rheumatologic disorders
- Congenital heart disease
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Hematological Abnormalities
- Gastric Bypass
- Asthma