Department of Family Medicine and Internal Diseases is one of the clinics at the Medical Center of Postgraduate Education (CMKP) which is providing education courses in internal medicine for specializing doctors whose goal is to practice family medicine. Four years ago, specialists working in this Department began to organize continuous education programs in the field of internal diseases for family physicians and other physicians who work in primary outpatient clinics.

Together with the continuous education programs, we prepare special issues of "Progress in Medicine” (a journal under the patronage of CMKP). Those issues are distributed among the participants of our courses as training materials and are also delivered to doctors of other specializations who are interested in internal medicine. The special issues have been very well received by family physicians and other readers of "Progress in Medicine”. They have become an important element of the training process of doctors in a variety of specializations. In the current volume of the journal, we have focused on internal diseases of pregnant women. The issues relating to pregnancy are an interdisciplinary problem that concerns not only gynecologists, midwives, internists, diet doctors, pediatricians, but also family doctors. While preparing this volume, we bore in mind that among primary health care doctors are professionals of different specializations and of varied expertise.

In my opinion, all of the topics covered in this volume are presented in an understandable fashion, especially when it comes to the practicalities of every day work. It is my hope that you will make use of this volume and that the information presented in the articles will aid you in your daily practice.

Prof. dr hab. med. Ewa Marcinowska-Suchowierska