Brigitte Strizek MD

Prof. Brigitte Strizek has headed the Department of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine at Bonn University Hospital (UKB) since mid-October. The 43-year-old is an experienced obstetrician and expert in the field of prenatal diagnostics as well as fetal therapy and plans to further expand the obstetrics high-risk area. Prof. Strizek has always had a special connection to the UKB.

The new Head of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine at the UKB, Prof. Brigitte Strizek, was herself born at the UKB - at that time still in the old building of the Women's Clinic on the Venusberg. The birth book with her entry still exists at the UKB. Since then, however, much has changed. Prof. Strizek, who has been working at the UKB for nine years, played a key role in planning and organizing the move of her department to the Parent-Child Center (ELKI), which will be inaugurated in 2020.

The ELKI not only has five modern delivery rooms and newly designed wards, it even has a birthing room named after Beethoven. The medical facilities give expectant mothers the utmost security in pleasant surroundings. "I am very pleased to take over the management of obstetrics and prenatal medicine at my own place of birth and the UKB as a top center for high-risk births, but also for normal births. In addition to expanding my main focus, fetal surgery, i.e. the treatment of diseases of the unborn while still in the womb, my team and I strive to provide optimal care for all pregnant women and women giving birth," says Prof. Brigitte Strizek. "In addition to maximum safety for mother and child, human attention and security are our most important concerns," she adds.

Before Prof. Strizek returned to her hometown of Bonn and the UKB in 2013, she completed her further training as a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics in Munich and Belgium, among other places. Working closely with her predecessor Prof. Ulrich Gembruch, she has been instrumental in expanding the Department of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine as head of the delivery room since 2018. The number of births at UKB has grown steadily in recent years; at the end of last year, there were more than 3,000 babies, a record number for Bonn and one of the four highest of all university hospitals in Germany.

But not only mothers and children with illnesses are cared for at the UKB. For pregnancies that proceed without problems, there is the successful offer of a midwife-led delivery room. Here, births are attended by midwives alone, with the assurance that a doctor will be on hand quickly if there is a medical emergency. "As a gynecologist, I can very well understand the uncertainties that many women experience during pregnancy. I am therefore very happy to have a great team by my side that always aims to provide expectant mothers with the appropriate care before, after, and during birth for their individual needs. With the advancement of prenatal diagnostics, there are also great opportunities to diagnose and treat any problems well before the due date and to work directly with the specialized pediatricians under one roof at all times," says Prof. Strizek, whose enthusiasm for her specialty is palpable.