David Williams MBBS PhD FRCP FRCOG
David Williams is a consultant obstetric physician at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and Professor of Obstetric Medicine at the UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health, University College London (UCL). David sees private patients at 78 Harley Street, London, W1G 7HJ.
As an obstetric physician, David specialises in the safe care of pregnant women with chronic medical diseases and those who develop new medical problems during pregnancy. He works closely with obstetricians, fetal medicine specialists and other medical specialists, to ensure pregnant women with medical disorders remain well for the optimal health of their unborn baby and breast-fed newborn.
David is an expert in the management of pregnancy-induced (gestational) medical disorders. These include sickness of pregnancy (hyperemesis gravidarum), pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), acute fatty liver of pregnancy, peripartum cardiomyopathy, rashes of pregnancy and the prevention of recurrent pregnancy loss due to inflammation of the placenta.
During his career as an obstetric physician, David developed the concept that the major physiological changes of healthy pregnancy act as a ‘stress test’ that unmask a woman’s predisposition to disease in later life. This occurs when a gestational syndrome such as pre-eclampsia develops at the end of pregnancy, recovers after childbirth, but re-emerges in later life as high blood pressure. In this way, pregnancy outcomes identify a mother’s future vulnerability to disease but also provide an opportunity for her to take measures to minimise this risk.
David is also expert in the safe management of pregnant women with chronic medical diseases and welcomes consultations before pregnancy to ensure optimal maternal health and safe prescribing of medicines, especially in the first trimester and through pregnancy.
At UCLH, David leads multi-disciplinary teams with other specialists in kidney disease and hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatological disorders, neurological disease and cancer. He works closely with specialists in heart disease and also haematologists to reduce the risk of blood clots in pregnancy.
At University College London (UCL), David leads the maternal medicine research group. Their main aims are:
Other Roles
David is lead obstetric physician for the North Central London maternal medicine network. This network incorporates The Royal Free and Barnet Hospitals, The Whittington and North Middlesex Hospitals. He is chairman of the Wellbeing of Women charity’s Research Advisory Committee and chairman of the UK NICE guideline on intrapartum management of medical disorders in pregnancy. He runs a weekly webinar for doctors and midwives on the management of medical disorders in pregnancy.
As an obstetric physician, David specialises in the safe care of pregnant women with chronic medical diseases and those who develop new medical problems during pregnancy. He works closely with obstetricians, fetal medicine specialists and other medical specialists, to ensure pregnant women with medical disorders remain well for the optimal health of their unborn baby and breast-fed newborn.
David is an expert in the management of pregnancy-induced (gestational) medical disorders. These include sickness of pregnancy (hyperemesis gravidarum), pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), acute fatty liver of pregnancy, peripartum cardiomyopathy, rashes of pregnancy and the prevention of recurrent pregnancy loss due to inflammation of the placenta.
During his career as an obstetric physician, David developed the concept that the major physiological changes of healthy pregnancy act as a ‘stress test’ that unmask a woman’s predisposition to disease in later life. This occurs when a gestational syndrome such as pre-eclampsia develops at the end of pregnancy, recovers after childbirth, but re-emerges in later life as high blood pressure. In this way, pregnancy outcomes identify a mother’s future vulnerability to disease but also provide an opportunity for her to take measures to minimise this risk.
David is also expert in the safe management of pregnant women with chronic medical diseases and welcomes consultations before pregnancy to ensure optimal maternal health and safe prescribing of medicines, especially in the first trimester and through pregnancy.
At UCLH, David leads multi-disciplinary teams with other specialists in kidney disease and hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatological disorders, neurological disease and cancer. He works closely with specialists in heart disease and also haematologists to reduce the risk of blood clots in pregnancy.
At University College London (UCL), David leads the maternal medicine research group. Their main aims are:
- To identify the cause and targeted treatment of gestational syndromes. Specifically, pre-eclampsia, acute fatty liver of pregnancy and hyperemesis gravidarum.
- To discover the cause and best treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss due maternal immune attack of the placenta. Recurrent pregnancy loss due to chronic histiocytic intervillositis (CHI), villitis of unknown etiology (VUE) and massive fibrin deposition (MPFD) are rare but devastating disorders of pregnancy in desperate need of a targeted solution.
- To discover whether obesity or other traits acquired during the lifetime of a father, can be transmitted through epigenetic marks on the DNA of his sperm or his seminal fluid, to influence fetal growth and development.
Other Roles
David is lead obstetric physician for the North Central London maternal medicine network. This network incorporates The Royal Free and Barnet Hospitals, The Whittington and North Middlesex Hospitals. He is chairman of the Wellbeing of Women charity’s Research Advisory Committee and chairman of the UK NICE guideline on intrapartum management of medical disorders in pregnancy. He runs a weekly webinar for doctors and midwives on the management of medical disorders in pregnancy.