November 2025

Dear SOAP Community,

As we enter the final stretch of 2025, I am energized by the momentum building across our community and the widening circle of partners joining us in advancing safe, equitable obstetric anesthesia. This season highlights one of SOAP’s greatest strengths: our ability to collaborate, innovate, and amplify our impact through shared purpose.

In December, SOAP will take an exciting step forward as we launch a new partnership presence at the NYSSA PGA Meeting in New York. This collaboration is more than a joint event—it is a model for how SOAP can bring obstetric anesthesia expertise to broader perioperative audiences while elevating our members’ voices on national and international stages. It also reflects a growing pattern as we explore partnerships with the California Society of Anesthesiologists, the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society, and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists. These intersociety relationships underscore that obstetric anesthesia is not a niche, but central to global maternal safety, workforce sustainability, and peripartum excellence.

At the same time, our internal work continues at full pace. The AMLE Curricular Subcommittee is hard at work finalizing the educational framework for the 2026 Annual Meeting in Montreal. This program is already shaping up to be a signature milestone for SOAP, a meeting that integrates implementation science, workforce strategy, global collaboration, and cutting-edge clinical content into a cohesive experience. Montreal will not simply be a meeting; it will be a statement about the future of our specialty and the community leading that future.

Across all these efforts, our educational platforms, intersociety collaborations, research network, PEAK series, and committee work, SOAP continues to reflect a simple truth: when we align our content, our community, and our mission, we elevate care for pregnant patients everywhere. Thank you for the leadership, creativity, and dedication you bring to this society every day. I am proud to continue building this momentum together. 

Ron George, MD, FRCP
President, Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology

BOARD STATS 
  • To date, there are 51 SOAP State Representatives, and we continue to work towards securing a representative from each state.  SOAP State Representatives will provide a key contact in each state to help us reach a broader audience, as SOAP strives to meet its mission to provide safe and equitable care for women and newborns everywhere. If you know someone who is interested in becoming a SOAP State Representative, please contact SOAP HQ.  
COMMITTEE STATS 

Annual Meeting and Live Events Committee 

  • 2025 Annual Meeting Virtual Highlights Event recording available in the SOAP Learning Center for attendees for both Virtual Highlights and Annual Meeting.
  • Save the Date! The 2026 SOAP Annual Meeting will be held April 29 - May 3, 2026 at Le Westin Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
    • AMLE Curricular Subcommittee is working on the 2026 Annual Meeting theme and programming.

Education Committee

  • Fellows Webinar was held on November 12th. Hosted by Dr. Daly, featuring Dr. Stephanie Woodward, “A Primer on Backstabbing: Teaching Neuraxial Anesthesia,”The recording is available on Open Anesthesia.

Diversity Committee 

Governance Committee 

  • Call for Committee interest closed October 3 
    • Draft Day for Committees was Nov. 3 & 4. Committee Chairs reviewing committee and subcommittee rosters, finding placements for volunteers without assignments.  
    • Terms for committees will begin January 1 and end on December 31.
  • Nominations for the 2027 Ostheimer Lecturer closed October 3
  • DSA Nominations closed October 17.

Intersociety Committee  

  • COE Applications closed October 15
  • Support of EAGLET study

Member Value Committee 

  • Join one of the fifteen Special Interest Groups. To see a full list of the Special Interest Groups visit the SOAP website.

Research Committee  

Finance Committee 

  • Combined net assets for SOAP and the SOAP Endowment were $6.7M as of April 31, 2025

SOAP Headquarters 

  • Download the SOAP Educational App!
  • Log into the SOAP Community! We’re happy to invite you to join the official SOAP online community platform at TradeWing! The platform has many of the features members requested.  
    • Add [email protected] to your safe sender's list so you can receive announcements from SOAP Community. 
    • View the full list of features and frequently asked questions.