Pregnancy

From the time you discover you're pregnant through the weeks and months after birth, UCSF Medical Center has services to help ensure a safe pregnancy and healthy baby while meeeting your individual preferences and needs.

Pregnancy can be one of the most exciting and personal experiences of a woman's life. For many women, pregnancy follows a routine nine-month course. Some women, however, have what's considered a "high-risk" pregnancy and require specialized care, such as prenatal diagnosis, genetic counseling and fetal treatment. Others may experience a miscarriage or undesired pregnancy and seek care at our Women's Option Center.

Services

Our Great Expectations Pregnancy Program, part of our Women's Health Resource Center, offers classes including labor and birth preparation, baby care and parenting. Sign up for a class online.. The center also maintains a lending library with more than 2,000 books and films and offers books and baby care supplies for sale. See books on breastfeeding and pregnancy, recommended by our staff and available for purchase in our online bookstore.

During your delivery and time in the hospital, we want you to feel as comfortable as possible. Private birthing suites in our Birth Center have bathrooms with showers, whirlpool tubs and amenities such as refrigerators. Patients typically labor, deliver and recover there. After your recovery, you and your baby move to a private postpartum room, with a deep-soaking tub and chairs that convert into sleepers for family members or guests.

If your newborn needs special medical care, we have one of the nation's finest intensive care nurseries. Board-certified perinatologists, or doctors who specialize in high-risk pregnancies, are available if necessary.

Other services include the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health to help couples conceive, a program called UCSF Twins and More to help prepare women for multiple births and a program called Pregnancy and Postpartum Mood Assessment to help women cope with depression during and after pregnancy.

Appointments

To request an appointment, see our online form.

To make an appointment by phone, please call:
Obstetrics and Perinatal Services (415) 353-2566

See information about our services for pregnant women and newborns at UCSF Children's Hospital at ValleyCare in Pleasanton.

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated August 29, 2008