New OB/GYN Specialist Joins FirstHealth Richmond Medical Group

Rasheed Yakubu, M.D.

ROCKINGHAM – Rasheed Yakubu, M.D., an OB/GYN specialist with a particular interest in uro-gynecology and high-risk pregnancy, has joined FirstHealth Richmond Medical Group – Women’s Center.

He is the latest addition to an OB/GYN team that also includes Nasser A. Askary, M.D.; Mohamed A.Y. Ibrahim, M.D.; Donald C. Jones, M.D., Ph.D.; Angela Morrison, M.D.; and Laura Marks, WHNP.

Although new to Richmond County, Dr. Yakubu is already impressed with the community and his new practice. He previously had been associated with The Women’s Care Center, an OB/GYN practice in Huntersville, for three years.

“Richmond County has a Southern down-home feel,” he says. “The people are courteous and welcome you with open arms. I see potential and growth for the community and the Women’s Center. I am joining an excellent group of qualified physicians, and together, we can make the Women’s Center a center of excellence and provide remarkable care within the surrounding community.”

Born in Nigeria, Dr. Yakubu says it was never his intention to leave his native country but that fate apparently had other plans. “I was entered into the Diversity Visa lottery system to Third World countries for individuals who want to come to live in the United States and was awarded a life change,” he says.

Previously a biochemistry major at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria, Dr. Yakubu changed his major to microbiology after joining his sister in the United States. He “fell in love” with caring for patients and their loved ones while volunteering in the clinic where she worked. 

Dr. Yakubu earned his B.S. degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he was on the Dean’s List of Scholars, and his M.D. from St. Georges University School of Medicine in St. Georges, Grenada, in 2004.
 
A residency in obstetrics and gynecology took him to New York and the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens near JFK International Airport.

“It’s an experience I would not trade in the whole world,” he says. “I always loved small personable community hospitals, and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, afforded me the opportunity to train in a Level 1 trauma center that serves a major metropolitan area. The population we took care of and the pathology we came across was very educational and rewarding.”

Because the hospital dealt with numerous high-risk patients and was staffed with highly trained physicians for its medical residents, Dr. Yakubu says, the experience prepared him well for a career in OB/GYN, the specialty he had been drawn to as a medical school student.

“During my academic training in medical school, we had to rotate through the different specialties in the hospital,” he says. “Once I rotated in OB, I knew that was what I wanted to do career wise. It involved the total care of patients since we see them prior to pregnancy, during pregnancy, after delivery and for routine care.”

Dr. Yakubu, who is board eligible in obstetrics and gynecology, has been married for 11 years. He and his wife Rachelle have three children: one son, Rakeem, and two daughters, Rehanna and Rania.

“We call ourselves the ‘R’ family,” he says.

The Yakubus reside in Richmond County.

FirstHealth Richmond Medical Group – Women’s Center is located at 921 Long Drive, Suite 207, Rockingham. To make an appointment with Rasheed Yakubu, M.D., or any of the other providers there, please call (910) 417-3477.

FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital is a division of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital.