My Life As an Ob-gyn ─ A Look Behind the Scenes

For most women, a visit to the OB-GYN is a dreaded experience. It invokes images of sitting on an examination table in a flimsy, tissue paper gown, of staring nervously at the dreaded “stirrups,” of feeling exposed, of being poked and prodded, and of being asked embarrassing questions about sex and reproduction. If it is a first visit, the patient will inevitably wonder: “What is my doctor really like? Is he cold and clinical or friendly and down to earth? How did he become a doctor? And why?” In a book that is as eye-opening as it is compelling, retired OB-GYN Douglas Edwin Heritage invites us to share the joy, humor, and tragedy of his 43-year career as a medical student, intern, resident, and physician in private practice. Through a series of short vignettes, Heritage leads us through experiences ranging from the unconventional pranks of medical school to the solemnity of pronouncing his first patient. He candidly brings to life the colorful and often bizarre encounters that define the unique medical subculture of obstetrics and gynecology.Stimulating, irreverent, and often droll, My Life as an OB-GYN will delight both practitioners and laymen alike.

Douglas Edwin Heritage was born in New Jersey in 1948. He majored in pre-medicine at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he graduated in 1971 with High Honors and High Honors in Zoology. He was accepted at the Medical College of Virginia-Virginia Commonwealth University, which he attended from 1971 to 1975, graduating as a Doctor of Medicine. From 1975 through 1978, Heritage was a Resident in the Obstetrics and Gynecology program at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. After finishing his residency, he practiced for one year with an established OBG group in Petersburg, Virginia. He left in 1979 to begin solo practice in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he practiced both obstetrics and gynecology until retirement in January of 2014.Heritage was Board Certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1980 and made a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1981. During his time in practice, he received numerous awards from the American Medical Association and the Medical Society of Virginia.Dr. Heritage is now happily married to Katie Shaw, and they continue to reside in Prince William County, Virginia.