1094. A Day in the Life: What’s It Really Like to Be a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist?

“At the end of medical school I still did not know what I wanted to specialize in. My last rotation was in obstetrics. I told a friend that I hoped that I would find this area more interesting than the others I had been studying because if I didn’t, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Thankfully, obstetrics was a perfect balance of my skills and interests, and I fell in love with it. Obstetrics is a ‘happy specialty’ for the most part and it offers you a little bit of everything: internal medicine, radiology, a lot of surgery and I was interested in all of those areas. I was fortunate to be accepted to a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at St. Louis University. From pretty early on I realized that I wanted to be a high-risk obstetrical specialist because it was a way to help women who were truly in need.

“The three things I teach my students are: hypertension disorder, diabetes disorder and pre-term birth. All of those can critically affect a pregnancy. In order to pursue this specialty, described as maternal-fetal medicine, I had to pursue two more years of training, which I did at Wayne State on a fellowship. I was also super fortunate that one of the top researchers on perinatal issues in the world, Dr. Roberto Romero, came to our university and he recruited me to work with him. We did some studies together that will probably never be repeated due to their breakthrough results. My educational foundation has been gratifying on so many levels and prepared me to maximize my talents so that I can serve my clients to the best of my ability. For that I am eternally grateful.”

Dr. Stanley Berry has been a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist and provided care to women with high-risk pregnancies for 37 years. Although Dr. Berry has authored or co-authored a large number of medical publications, “A Fight For Full Disclosure” is his debut novel. His professional musician father & social worker mother, passed to him a love of music, reading, and a respect for hard work. Although he refers to himself as a “failed English major,” Dr. Berry never lost his passion for creative writing or his goal of communicating his ideas about the world of medicine and medical research through the medium of fiction.