First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University

Obstetrics

The Department of Obstetrics of the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University has excellent medical expertise and service quality. It is currently a maternal and child medical, training, and health-care institution in southern Liaoning that integrates specialist medical care, teaching, research, and prevention, and has supervisors qualified to guide master’s students. Its obstetric experts have extensive clinical experience. They are the main teaching force for training obstetric and maternal-and-child health professionals at all levels in Dalian, and an important part of the provincial and municipal expert groups that review maternal deaths and rescue critically ill obstetric patients. The department has 41 medical and nursing staff, including 7 experts with senior professional titles, 1 renowned professor and expert receiving a municipal government allowance, and 4 master’s supervisors; 85% of its physicians have a master’s degree or above. It also has 1 deputy senior nurse, 5 charge nurses, and 10 midwives; 76% of the nursing staff have a bachelor’s degree or above. The working areas of the obstetrics department of the First Hospital of Dalian Medical University are functionally divided into the obstetric outpatient clinic, obstetric ward, delivery room, obstetric operating room, and prenatal diagnosis laboratory. Leveraging the strengths of a comprehensive tertiary Grade A hospital, our hospital is Dalian’s emergency rescue center for pregnant and postpartum women and has undertaken extensive work to treat critically ill pregnant and postpartum women in the region. Medical and service features. 1. Diagnosis and treatment of high-risk pregnancy and rescue of critically ill pregnant and postpartum women. Our hospital is a provincial tertiary Grade A teaching hospital. Supported by the departments of internal medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, and the ICU, the department focuses on diagnosing and treating pregnancy complications and comorbidities. It has particularly extensive experience in managing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, preterm birth, recurrent miscarriage, fetal growth restriction, and pregnancy complicated by diabetes or thyroid disease. It has a very high success rate in rescuing critically ill and difficult cases, including eclampsia, HELLP syndrome, heart disease, acute fatty liver of pregnancy, and massive obstetric hemorrhage. Seventy percent of the patients we treat have high-risk pregnancies, most of them referred or sent for consultation from other urban hospitals. Our hospital is Dalian’s maternal and postpartum emergency rescue center and has done extensive work to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality in the city. As a result, its Department of Obstetrics received the title of Dalian Advanced Collective in Perinatal Health Care in 2011. 2. Prenatal diagnosis and genetic counseling. In 1982, a reproductive genetics laboratory was established. More than 5,000 peripheral-blood chromosome karyotype analyses have been performed, identifying 100 abnormal karyotypes, including 8 karyotypes first reported worldwide and included in the Atlas of Human Chromosome Karyotypes. In 1984, amniotic-fluid culture was initiated, and a microassay method for six lysosomal enzymes in human chorion was established; this method was used to diagnose one child with Niemann–Pick disease. For many years, the department has provided preconception eugenics counseling and genetic counseling. It has sent professionals to study at leading prenatal diagnosis centers in China and accumulated clinical experience, enabling it to judge and assess the recurrence risks of common genetic diseases and birth defects. Ultrasound examinations are performed in early pregnancy to screen for fetal chromosomal abnormalities as early as possible. During mid-pregnancy, amniocentesis is performed for prenatal diagnosis when fetal chromosomal abnormalities are suspected or the risk is high. Three-dimensional ultrasound examination in mid-pregnancy is used to screen for and diagnose abnormalities in fetal morphology and structure. 3. Disease prevention. In recent years, we have changed our service model from one centered on treatment to one centered on preventive health care. We participated in Professor Yang Huixia of Peking University First Hospital’s World Diabetes Organization-funded project, the Cooperative Project for Promoting Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, and implemented standardized management of diabetes complicating pregnancy, including preconception counseling, prenatal screening, diagnosis and standardized treatment, postpartum reclassification, follow-up, and intervention. In cooperation with the Department of Nutrition, we run a once-weekly one-day diabetes clinic that teaches patients self-management and monitoring, with good results. Nutritional management during pregnancy is directly related to promoting vaginal delivery and reducing the cesarean-section rate. We have done extensive work in this area. This year, we applied for the Pregnancy Nutrition Lecture project sponsored by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association. After expert review, our Department of Obstetrics became one of the first institutions responsible for implementing the National Pregnancy Nutrition Lecture project, with the aim of jointly promoting nutrition and health education during pregnancy and ensuring the safety of mothers and infants. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are serious complications that threaten maternal and fetal safety. We have carried out comprehensive management and prevention throughout pregnancy, making our hospital the regional referral center for these disorders and reducing adverse maternal and infant outcomes. We screen, conduct preventive monitoring, and provide timely treatment for high-risk groups for late miscarriage and preterm birth, reducing the incidence of preterm birth and perinatal mortality. 4. Service features. Putting people first and providing honest service are our service principles; reproductive health and maternal safety are our service mission. In 2000, our Department of Obstetrics was the first in Dalian to implement such humane services as pregnancy-school lectures, education on diabetes self-management, newborn bathing and touch care, and postpartum health education. Guided by evidence-based medicine, we provide pregnant and postpartum women with health-care knowledge for pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, as well as mental and psychological support. In the past three years, the department and ward have been recognized as advanced management units of our hospital. Research and teaching. Research: Research on intrauterine transmission of hepatitis B virus and its effects on the fetus received the third prize for scientific and technological progress from the provincial government, providing a theoretical basis for preventing mother-to-child transmission. Since 1994, we have studied the relationship between antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, spontaneous miscarriage, and female infertility, and developed clinically an integrated treatment approach centered on immunosuppression for recurrent miscarriage caused by abnormal autoimmune antibodies, with good results. More than 10 national-level papers have been published. The work has also received second prizes for scientific and technological progress from the Liaoning Provincial Government and the Provincial Education Commission, and an application was made in recent years for one National Natural Science Foundation award. Research on screening and diagnosing congenital fetal malformations through biochemical indicators in maternal serum and chromosome analysis in amniotic fluid was funded by the Dalian Municipal Science and Technology Commission. In recent years, in-depth research on the management of gestational diabetes during pregnancy and postpartum follow-up and intervention, as well as iodine deficiency in pregnant women, has received three projects funded by the Liaoning Provincial Education Commission. Screening and management of thyroid disease during pregnancy received one Liaoning Provincial Science and Technology Plan project, and we have participated in several early-stage projects of the national 973 Program, Ministry of Health industry-specific research-fund projects, and National Natural Science Foundation projects. Teaching: We undertake obstetrics and gynecology teaching at multiple levels, provide clinical supervision for many graduate students and seven-year-program students, and provide standardized training for many resident physicians over three years. In the past two years, we have hosted three national and provincial continuing-education projects, with more than 400 participants and good results. In the National Clinical Skills Competition for University Students of Higher Medical Schools, Dalian Medical University won the grand prize; several obstetrics instructors made outstanding contributions and received multiple awards from the university and hospital. Our goal is maternal safety and reproductive health. To reduce maternal and infant mortality, we must make unremitting efforts.