Birthing options: Expert biographies

 

 
Pat O’Brien has been a Consultant & Honorary Senior Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University College London Hospitals since 1999. He qualified as a doctor in Ireland, but all his postgraduate training has been in London.

He specialises in Maternal Medicine and high-risk obstetrics, and at UCLH jointly runs a multi-disciplinary antenatal clinic involving consultants in Fetal Medicine, Cardiology, Haematology, Diabetes, Anaesthesia, and an Obstetric Physician.

He has a particular interest in medical complications of pregnancy, and this is the focus of many of his publications. He lectures widely in the UK and abroad, and runs courses on fetal monitoring, medical problems on the delivery suite, and psychiatric problems in pregnancy.

 
He is the Chair of the International Division of the Institute for Women’s Health in London, and a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists.

He is a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration and several medical journals. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and the BJM. He examines for the DRCOG examination. He is a member of the obstetric guideline development group of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK.

He also works with BBC Television (British Broadcasting Corporation) as an obstetric advisor.