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NBC 10 and Rhode Island Monthly are profiling the state's "Top Docs" for women. These are doctors who have been voted by their peers to be the best in their specialties.

Dr. Doreen Wiggins is being honored by her peers as a top obstetrician -- a doctor who treats patients during pregnancy, labor and delivery.

One of her colleagues refers to her as an excellent human being. Another describes her as an extremely dedicated physician.

And Wiggins wears a few different hats.

When not practicing obstetrics, she's at the Breast Health Center at Women and Infants' Hospital, diagnosing and treating women with breast cancer.

But that's not all.

Wiggins is very active in the community and on behalf of her cancer patients, some of whom are no longer with us.

Which brings up another word used to describe this Top Doc: compassionate.

"I think the most influential thing I've done was participating in the Tour of Hope, where I rode across the United States with Lance Armstrong, and we visited different cancer centers and rode along cancer survivors. That was empowering on many levels. It helped me in what I do and just to be more empathetic, but it also saw how you can really make a difference," Wiggins said.

Her professional family has grown throughout the years, and now, so is her own family.

"It's a very big surprise at 44," Wiggins said.

With children ranging from middle-school age to college, she and her husband, Mike, also a doctor, are having a fifth child.

"We don't know what it is. We decided to keep the surprise going, and the kids are just very excited about it," Wiggins said.

Motherhood is very exciting for this doctor who values family so much, she never left home.

"I grew up in North Providence and I went to Bay View, and then I went to URI and got a degree in chemistry and psychology, and then I went to Brown," Wiggins said.

Wiggins said she originally wanted to be a neurosurgeon but quickly changed her mind when she got a taste of obstetrics.

How does it feel to be pregnant alongside her patients?

"I think it's been great for my patients to see, especially since I'm a lot older than them," Wiggins said.

Wiggins said she's proud to be affiliated with Women and Infants' Hospital -- one of only a few of its kind in the country.

She's also proud of her deep involvement with a local organization known as Friends Way, the only bereavement agency for children in our area.

Wiggins is one of three obstetricians named tops in her field in this month's Rhode Island Monthly.