Obstetrics

The Department of Obstetrics of Shandong Provincial Hospital was founded in 1902. It is one of the first key disciplines in Shandong Province and a key specialty in medicine and health care in Shandong Province. In 2010, it was approved as one of the first national clinical key specialties by the National Health Commission. In 2020, it was recognized as the Shandong Provincial Sub-center of the National Clinical Medical Research Center for Gynecological and Obstetric Diseases. It is also one of the first in the country and the earliest in Shandong Province to train medical master’s students (1978) and doctoral students (1982). As a leading discipline in the province, the department is the institution serving as deputy chair of the 8th and 9th committees of the Perinatal Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; a national high-quality service institution for maternal and infant safety; a national specialty in maternal and prenatal health care; a doctoral-degree-granting discipline in obstetrics at Shandong University and Shandong First Medical University; a Taishan Scholar post; the leading institution of the Shandong Provincial Obstetrics Alliance; a provincial treatment center for critically ill pregnant and postpartum women; the affiliated institution of the Shandong Provincial Obstetrics Quality Control Center; and the institution serving as chair of the Perinatal Medicine Branch of the Shandong Medical Association and the Perinatal Medicine Professional Committee of the Shandong Medical Doctor Association. The department currently has 115 open beds. In 2024, 7,013 women gave birth and nearly 10,000 patients were discharged. Its service capacity and academic level rank among the leading positions in the province, and it enjoys a high reputation in the national perinatal medicine community.

Rapid Development of Medical Technology, with Multiple Leading Technologies

As a provincial multidisciplinary consultation center (MDT) for difficult and critical obstetric conditions, the department has accumulated extensive experience in managing various obstetric emergencies and critical illnesses. A number of critical obstetric medical technologies have reached an advanced level in China. The department has carried out complex cesarean sections, various uterine compression sutures for hemostasis, ultrasound-guided puncture and drainage, emergency cervical cerclage, combined cesarean section and cardiac surgery for the simultaneous treatment of fatal heart disease in late pregnancy, aortic dissection, and other operations. It possesses technologies including life-support treatment for multiple organ failure, hemodialysis, and plasma exchange. The department was among the first in China to perform cesarean section with abdominal aortic occlusion for pernicious placenta previa and has also carried out conservative treatment with local drug injection for placenta accreta after delivery. The department has accumulated valuable experience in the standardized diagnosis and treatment of recurrent miscarriage and preterm birth. It was among the earliest to perform emergency cervical cerclage for inevitable preterm birth and took the lead in drafting the domestic consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of obstetric antiphospholipid syndrome. The fetal medicine subspecialty is one of the earliest units in China to conduct prenatal diagnosis and fetal-medicine-related technologies. The department was among the first in the province and the country to perform potassium chloride multifetal pregnancy reduction, radiofrequency ablation reduction for complicated multiple pregnancies, intrauterine fetal blood transfusion, and radiofrequency ablation of giant placental chorioangiomas. It has now established a full-cycle technical system covering genetic counseling, prenatal screening and diagnosis, intrauterine treatment, and comprehensive management of multiple pregnancies. The department has accumulated extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of complications of complex multiple pregnancies, including twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, selective fetal growth restriction, and twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence, as well as difficult diseases such as fetal anemia, fetal hydrops, amniotic band syndrome, chorioangioma, and fetal arrhythmia, and continues to lead the development of the regional fetal medicine specialty. The department routinely performs more than ten high-end technologies, including transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, fetal umbilical vein puncture, fetoscopic laser coagulation, fetal fluid drainage, and intrapartum EXIT procedures. Among these, radiofrequency ablation reduction, intrauterine fetal blood transfusion, intrauterine treatment of fetal arrhythmia, and radiofrequency ablation of placental hemangioma have reached an advanced level in China.

Comprehensive Discipline Development, Setting an Example

The discipline emphasizes the development of key technologies in subspecialties including general obstetrics, maternal medicine, and fetal medicine. With the goal of providing warm, safe, and comfortable care throughout pregnancy and childbirth to the majority of pregnant and postpartum women, the discipline undertakes part of the pregnancy and maternity healthcare services in Jinan; the rescue and management of difficult and critically ill patients transferred from hospitals at all levels across the province; and work guidance and medical consultation for lower-level hospitals. It has 115 open beds, an annual number of deliveries exceeding 10,000, and difficult and critical cases account for 35%. Special outpatient clinics have been established for complex twins and fetal medicine, recurrent miscarriage, placental diseases, gestational diabetes mellitus, and high-risk pregnancy. Together with more than 160 institutions in the province, it established the «Shandong Obstetrics Alliance». Through multidisciplinary collaboration and the application of leading professional technologies in China, it has built a first-class treatment center for difficult and critically ill pregnant and postpartum women and a fetal medicine center covering the entire province and radiating to surrounding areas. In response to the needs of pregnant and postpartum women in the province and surrounding areas, the department is strengthening its substantive development while expanding the number of beds and increasing deliveries, admitting patients at a level that meets or exceeds national requirements for graded diagnosis and treatment, maintaining the leading position of its advantageous technologies, and researching and developing new diagnostic and treatment technologies.

Comprehensive Team Development, Integrating Scientific Research and Innovation

Using the strengthening of scientific research capacity as its fulcrum, the department focuses on obstetric critical care, fetal medicine, placental diseases, and recurrent miscarriage and preterm birth. It has conducted a series of scientific studies closely integrating clinical and basic research, achieved a series of results, and developed strong comprehensive scientific research strength and innovation-and-translation capabilities. In recent years, the department has led 5 projects and research topics under the National Key Research and Development Program, undertaken 6 General Program projects and 6 Young Scientists Fund projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, and more than 10 provincial- and ministerial-level scientific research projects. It has received 8 provincial- and ministerial-level awards for scientific and technological progress and 4 awards for scientific and technological innovation achievements. In the past 5 years, it has published more than 200 papers in core journals in China and abroad, including more than 80 SCI papers, and took the lead in completing 4 domestic expert consensuses on obstetrics.

The discipline currently has 145 professional and technical staff, including 34 physicians, of whom 28 hold senior professional titles. The discipline currently has 1 Taishan Scholar, 1 provincial expert with outstanding contributions, 1 Taishan Young Scholar, 3 doctoral supervisors, and 5 master’s supervisors.