Jennifer Wong, MD, is an obstetrician-gynecologist who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine, which means she takes care of women with high-risk conditions that may affect their pregnancy. She does not currently perform deliveries.
“The most common conditions I see are diabetes and high blood pressure, but I also manage multiple pregnancies, fetal anomalies, and other complications,” Dr. Wong says. “It’s rewarding because my patients are highly motivated. They want the best for themselves and for their child. It can be nerve-wracking to have a high-risk condition, and one of my roles is to help guide them through the pregnancy with as much reassurance and support as I can.”
Dr. Wong says she was drawn to her field partly for its challenges. “We take care of a patient within a patient, both the mom and the fetus. There really is no other specialty that encompasses both, and that has always appealed to me,” she says.
Plus, taking care of pregnant women today is naturally more complicated, Dr. Wong points out. “The average age of a woman when they are pregnant is going up as people are deferring childbearing until later. We are seeing more obesity complicating pregnancy, as well as type 2 diabetes,” she says. “Because of advances in other fields of medicine, such as pediatric cardiology, we also have a growing population of women with complex medical and/or surgical histories who may never have reached childbearing years in the past. Now their pregnancies need to be managed.”
