Receiving over 400 referrals each month, the Feto-Maternal Medicine Unit (FMU) at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) is providing specialised and holistic care to women with high-risk and complex pregnancies. The unit provides treatment to expectant mothers requiring specialised care for maternal or foetal reasons. The unit offers advance diagnosis and treatment of complications which may arise in unborn babies.
“We see on an average around 400 to 490 cases per month. The number has increased since we moved into the new facility at the WWRC,” said Dr Sawsan Hassan Al Obaidly, Consultant Feto-Maternal Medicine and Obstetrics/Gynaecology, speaking to media recently.
FMU has continued to improve its services for women with high-risk pregnancies and around seen around 8,500 cases in 2018. The unit receives referrals by health centres, private clinics and HMC facilities when either expectant mothers requiring specialised care for maternal or fetal reasons.
“Some women face difficulties while pregnant and experience complications for a number of reasons, including miscarriage, pre-term labour and pre-term birth, preeclampsia (associated with high blood pressure and protein in the urine), abnormal amniotic volume, and diabetes,” said Dr Al Obaidly.
“There are also cases that are referred due to abnormalities or potential abnormalities in the unborn baby, which are detected through a scan done in the primary health care centres or at private clinics.
“When these cases come to us we do a detailed scanning as well as minor invasive procedures. In some cases we hold multi-disciplinary meetings to reach a decision and provide proper care and delivery decision,” said Dr Al Obaidly.
She said that the unit is consultant based and the services provided include advanced ultra-sound; non-invasive prenatal testing; prenatal diagnostic procedures in the indicated cases; prenatal diagnosis of some foetal conditions, besides others.
“We also aim to project and prevent pre-term births in high risk cases as well as diagnosis and management of cases presenting abnormalities. We assess women having high risk multiple pregnancies, especially twins who share one placenta-monochorionic, triplets or more pregnancies.”
In addition to providing core fetal medicine services, Dr Al Obaidly added that the FMU offers other subspecialty clinics, including a fetal cardiology service and a prenatal genetic counseling service for couples with a current or previous history of fetal abnormalities. Thousands of women have received care at the FMU since established in 2002.
