The role of the medical consultant in pregnancy.

We are entering an era during which there will be a greater need for medical consultation in obstetric patients, a result of two major trends. The first is the improvement in medical management and surgical intervention which has enabled women with profound medical problems to live to a child-bearing age. The second trend is the delay in child-bearing by women born after 1950. Medical problems and complications increase in frequency with increasing maternal age. The unique features of medical consultations in pregnancy are discussed.