Celeste Durnwald MD

Celeste P. Durnwald, MD, is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty in 2012 and is the Director of the Perinatal Diabetes Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the Director of High-Risk Services at the Helen O. Dickens Center for Women’s Health. She is the co-founder of the Maternal Child Metabolic and Nutrition Research Group (Met-NRG). Her research interests are focused on understanding the interplay between altered glucose metabolism and perinatal outcomes.

Celeste has completed several randomized clinical trials investigating the benefits of an intensive behavioral intervention program in gestational diabetes as well as postoperative interventions to decrease wound complications in obese women who undergo unscheduled cesarean deliveries. She is currently the PI of the GLAM study (Glucose Levels Across Maternity), a prospective cohort study of 800 healthy pregnant women undergoing continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) during all three trimesters of pregnancy to better characterize glycemic patterns associated with adverse perinatal outcomes independent of a diagnosis of GDM. She is also site-PI for 2 NIH funded multicenter studies: (1) the MOMPOD study: evaluating the safety and efficacy of the addition of metformin to insulin therapy in women with Type 2 diabetes and (2) the TIME study: evaluating the timing of delivery among women with gestational diabetes.