Fetal medicine

Our fetal medicine unit cares for those with high risk pregnancies and babies. The team is made up of subspecialty trained obstetric consultants, specialised midwives and a small number of higher medical trainees. 

We work very closely with highly specialised paediatric services throughout the East Midlands, and the clinical and laboratory genetics teams in Nottingham.

There are a number of reasons why women are referred to our service:

  • Something unexpected was seen on one of your routine ultrasound scans, or at any point during your pregnancy
  • There is greater than usual chance of your baby having a condition. This could be because of reasons including: you have had a high chance screening result, following the previous birth of a baby with certain conditions or because of a personal or family history of a genetic problem.
  • Your baby is thought to be much smaller than usual or expected
  • If baby needs specialist treatment during the pregnancy, such as a blood transfusion in the womb.

Appointments

What will happen at your appointment?

We do our very best to keep on time with our appointments because we recognise how stressful it can be to attend our clinics. However, appointments sometime exceed their allotted time but we will see you as soon as we can.

This is a consultant delivered service, however there might be senior medical trainees working with the consultant. Please be assured that even if you are initially seen by a senior trainee, you will also meet the consultant in the clinic who will be responsible for your care. 

In most cases an ultrasound scan you will have an ultra sound at your appointment. We also may offer different blood tests, and in some cases tests such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS).

You will have the opportunity to meet with specialist paediatric or genetics doctors who may have a more detailed understanding of the problem which we have identified. 

By providing you with information, answering your questions and performing more tests and additional scans, we will work together with you to make a plan for the rest of the pregnancy, the birth, and the care of your new baby. 

After your appointment

Often we are able to reassure future parents that there isn’t a problem and you can return to normal care with your midwife. However, if you and your baby do need additional care, we may need to see you again for follow up appointments. 

If you were originally planning to have your baby elsewhere we may suggest jointly caring for you with the obstetricians and midwives from your referring unit, to limit the number of times you have to travel into Nottingham. 

Normally your baby can be born in your local hospital but in some cases we may recommend that your baby is born at QMC or City Hospital, depending on the situation and the level of specialist care that you or your baby may need.

Abnormally Invasive Placenta Service

Abnormally invasive placentation which can also be known as placenta accreta is when the placenta grows into the muscle of the uterus, making separation at the time of birth difficult.

It is most common in women who have a low lying placenta (placenta praevia) and who have also had a Caesarean delivery in the past.

Women who have a low lying placenta at 20 weeks and those who have any risk factors for this complication will be offered a specialist ultrasound scan to assess if this problem is likely or not.

Further scans such as an MRI may be recommended. The doctors will then plan with you how best to treat the problem at the time of birth.

This clinic runs at the Fetal Medicine department in City Hospital and accepts referral from across the East Midlands.

Contact us

Both the Fetal Care Unit at City Hospital, and the Fetal Medicine department at QMC, are open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Fetal Care Unit, Tel: 0115 969 1169 Ext: 56480

Fetal Medicine Unit, Tel: 0115 970 9924