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Advances in Maternal–Fetal Medicine

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Obstetrics & Gynecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2026 | Viewed by 476

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Pediatrix Center for Research, Education, Quality and Safety, Pediatrix Medical Group, Sunrise, FL, USA
Interests: maternal-fetal medicine; obstetric ultrasound; preterm birth; preeclampsia; growth restriction; pregnancy complications; disseminated intravascular coagulation in pregnancy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Maternal–fetal medicine (MFM) is an important subspecialty of obstetrics that focuses on the management of high-risk pregnancies, improving the prognosis for both the mother and the fetus, and caring for people with complications during pregnancy, including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and fetal growth restriction. Advanced tools such as ultrasound, Doppler imaging, amniocentesis, fetal monitoring, and fetal surgery are integral parts of the practice of MFM. This Special Issue aims to discuss cutting-edge diagnostic, therapeutic, and management modalities in maternal–fetal medicine to provide additional ideas for specialists in this field.

This Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine will include articles relevant to clinicians and researchers in the field of maternal–fetal medicine, including the following:

  • Medical conditions during pregnancy (e.g., diabetes, autoimmune disorders, infections);
  • Obstetrical complications (e.g., hypertensive disorders, preterm labor);
  • Fetal congenital anomalies, diagnosis and management;
  • Fetal growth disorders, diagnosis and management;
  • Prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities and variants;
  • Fetal therapy and in utero interventions;
  • Obstetrical ultrasound;
  • Precision medicine in maternal–fetal care;
  • Artificial intelligence in obstetrics;
  • Health equity and disparities in maternal and perinatal outcomes;
  • Patient safety and quality of antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum care;
  • Techniques for surgical procedures and other procedures;
  • Association of pregnancy complications with long-term maternal cardiometabolic health.

You are welcome to contribute to this Special Issue with original articles and reviews, including clinical trials, observational studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, narrative reviews, and so on.

Dr. C. Andrew Combs
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • maternal–fetal medicine
  • obstetric ultrasound
  • preterm birth
  • preeclampsia
  • pregnancy complications
  • artificial intelligence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 520 KB  
Article
Antenatal Maternal Hemoglobin Level and Severe Maternal Morbidity
by Sonya P. Fabricant, Karen N. Opara, Alesandra R. Rau, Julianna V. Paul, Alodia Girma, Jessica D. White, Gabriella Blissett, Intira Sriprasert, Lisa M. Korst and Nicole M. Chadwick
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(16), 5823; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14165823 - 18 Aug 2025
Viewed by 308
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Prior studies using administrative data have found that antenatal anemia is a risk factor for severe maternal morbidity (SMM). However, administrative definitions, including the commonly used definition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have a poor positive predictive [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Prior studies using administrative data have found that antenatal anemia is a risk factor for severe maternal morbidity (SMM). However, administrative definitions, including the commonly used definition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have a poor positive predictive value for some SMM components. We tested the relationship between hemoglobin level at delivery admission and SMM, as defined by gold-standard chart review. Methods: This was a retrospective case–control study of deliveries at a high-acuity hospital in Los Angeles, California, from 2016 to 2019. Administrative data were screened to identify patients with CDC SMM. Control-patients were selected at random from screen-negative individuals. Medical records for all individuals were reviewed for gold-standard SMM criteria, and clinical data were abstracted. Confirmed-positive and confirmed-negative patients were compared using bivariate analyses. Multiple logistic regression models were developed to test the relationship between admission hemoglobin level and gold-standard SMM. Results: Of 4202 eligible individuals, 275 (6.5%) screened positive for SMM. Of these, 107 (38.5%) met gold-standard SMM criteria; 285 confirmed-negative controls were retained for analysis. Case-patients were more likely than control-patients to have anemia on delivery admission (43.9% vs. 24.2%, p < 0.01) and had lower admission hemoglobin levels (11.2 ± 1.7 g/dL vs. 11.9 ± 1.3 g/dL, p < 0.01). After controlling for covariates, admission hemoglobin was independently and inversely associated with gold-standard SMM (aOR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.60–0.96, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Lower hemoglobin level at delivery admission was associated with an increased risk of developing gold-standard SMM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Maternal–Fetal Medicine)
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