Maternity Care Fellowship

Program Overview

Maternity care and women's health are integral and vital components of family medicine. The UMKC Family Medicine Department at the University Health Lakewood Medical Center (UHLMC) campus has historically had a strong obstetrics component, training many of our residents to competently care for and deliver pregnant patients who have a mix of high-risk factors.

For more 30 years, the UMKC Family Medicine Department has provided interested Family Medicine physicians an additional year of educational and procedural experience delivering babies, vaginally and by Caesarean Section.

Leadership and Faculty

Stephen Vierthaler, M.D., has been the fellowship director for the last 18 years. Dr. Vierthaler is board-certified in family medicine (University of Iowa residency), and OBGYN (University of Kansas residency), and is a University of Kansas School of Medicine graduate.

Our family medicine labor and delivery faculty is comprised of 15 faculty, including 11 fellowship-trained and c-section-qualified physicians.

Our Patients

University Health Lakewood serves an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse population in Eastern Jackson County, Mo. Located just outside of Kansas City, we serve patients from the surrounding urban, suburban and rural areas of Missouri and Kansas.

Our Fellows

Our program currently trains two fellows each year.

Since our inception, we've trained 30+ fellows who have gone on to be active in academic, rural and international medicine, many teaching at residency programs. Our program is well represented across the country and in the military services. Many fellows end up continuing their careers as UMKC faculty.

Program Outcomes and Structure

Our program is designed to further develop and enhance your ability to manage labor while sharpening your surgical skills. Our laborist model includes a family medicine attending physician on site 24/7. They direct a team, which simultaneously manages family medicine antepartum patients in triage, multiple labor patients and postpartum patients. The labor and delivery team is composed of family medicine residents, nurses and a sonographer, with OBGYN faculty on site 24/7 for consultation.

The residency and fellowship programs are unopposed. We do not have OBGYN residents at UHLMC.

The OBGYN department runs a parallel service at UHLMC. Our department and theirs combine to deliver about 1500 babies per year.

The OBGYN service usually has about seven board-certified OBGYN physicians, one who is on site 24/7.

Our fellows are present for all C-section deliveries (both services), and after a brief introductory period, are the primary surgeons on all patients requiring C-sections. This generally consists of about 300-400+ c-sections each year, and our fellows have been averaging 120-140 C-sections each per year as primary surgeons.

Fellow Schedule

Fellow schedules alternate a week of clinic/outpatient responsibilities with a week of labor and delivery. This includes three days in the family medicine Prenatal Care Clinic, and one day in Lakewood OBGYN University Care Clinic, which includes OB and GYN consults, high risk OB, early pregnancy loss, colposcopy, EMB, Nexplanon, IUDs and biopsies.

Week one

  • Monday: Maternal Care Clinic
  • Tuesday: Maternal Care Clinic
  • Wednesday: Maternal Care Clinic
  • Thursday: Clinical admin time and OB didactics
  • Friday: University Health Women's Care Clinic

Week two

  • Monday: Labor and delivery
  • Tuesday: Labor and delivery
  • Wednesday: Labor and delivery
  • Thursday: Clinical admin time and OB didactics
  • Friday: Labor and delivery

One half day each week is dedicated to didactics (combined, both fellows), and one half day each week is dedicated to administrative study or scholarly pursuit.

Night call alternates between fellows, and it is expected that all C-sections are attended by a fellow.

Monthly strip/case review, run by OB service.

Procedural Competence

These numbers are estimates. Actual numbers are dependent on patient admissions.

  • C-sections — 120-140
  • Operative vaginal delivery — 5-10
  • External cephalic version
  • Repair of first and second degree lacerations — 40-60
  • Repair of third or fourth degree lacerations — 5-10
  • Nexplanon Placement — 30-40
  • IUD Placement — 20-25
  • D and Cs — 5-10
  • Obstetric ultrasound — varies on fellow interest 

Have Questions or Ready to Apply?

Please message our Advanced OB Fellowship Coordinator, Patricia True, or call her at 816-404-9597 with questions or for application details.