Who are we and what are we doing?
It is difficult to imagine modern conscious family planning without centers dealing with genetics and maternal fetal medicine. The mission of such centers is aimed at caring for a woman during her pregnancy and for her unborn child. Thanks to the widespread use of modern methods of prenatal diagnosis in the last decade, women have gained access to medical genetic counseling for an unborn child, to a comprehensive screening of the fetus for the presence of malformations and congenital diseases, as well as to preimplantation genetic studies.
Our Peacehealth maternal fetal medicine center is one of the flagships of American prenatal medicine and has collected all the most advanced healthcare achievements in improving the health of mother and child.
Who are our clients?
Every family and every woman can contact our center at the stage of pregnancy planning, as well as directly during it. However, certain categories of clients contact us more often than others. Among them are families with a burdened family history of genetic diseases, women with a fetus with a suspected genetic disease or identified genetic diseases and syndromes, with suspected or identified congenital malformations, with infertility of any genesis, with miscarriage of any genesis. We also strongly advise to contact us for women with gynecological diseases who require conservative treatment for severe functional and organic changes in the organs of the reproductive system, as well as pregnant women with a high risk of developing fetal chromosomal abnormalities during the current pregnancy, with suspected congenital malformations of the fetus during the current pregnancy, and those who have given birth to children with congenital malformations or chromosomal abnormalities in history.
Ultrasound maternal fetal medicine and pelvic dimensions
Even for women whose pregnancy is smooth and passes without any alarming symptoms, it is useful to undergo a comprehensive ultrasound diagnosis of the fetus in our center, which will make sure that the future baby is healthy, as well as choose the best strategy for childbirth, depending on the size of the fetus, its presentation and size of internal pelvis of a pregnant woman. There is a misconception that women with narrow pelvises (visually narrow hips) usually face difficult births, however, the situation is much more complicated. First of all, hips of normal width can appear narrow compared to broad shoulders. This is especially true for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. In addition, it often happens that the internal dimensions of the pelvic opening are sufficient for normal natural childbirth, despite the small external dimensions of the pelvis. The fact is that the pelvis, in addition to the width, also has a thickness, as well as different angles of narrowing of the pelvic opening. Finally, often women with wide hips have a thick pelvis, protruding pelvic bones, giving a deceptively wide hips impression. However, they cannot be called wide hips in gynecological terms if their pelvic opening has a small diameter or a form of narrowing that is unfavorable for natural childbirth. Thus, a woman of any physique can have objective indicators for a cesarean section, which can be determined by ultrasound and measurements taken in a special way.
A clinically narrow pelvis can occur even with normal pelvis sizes due to the presence of a large fetus, anomalies in the insertion of the head, overcarrying, etc. With normal pelvic sizes and the average height of a woman, a fetus with an estimated weight of 4000 g or more is considered large. The main risk factors for the formation of clinical discrepancy can be identified in advance. Determining the weight of the fetus, the size of its head, the size of the woman’s pelvis and their compliance is very important for choosing the tactics of delivery.
Maternal fetal medicine anatomy scan
Ultrasound is an indispensable technology that allows you to monitor the growth and development of a baby in the womb. Ultrasound is a widely used method to detect fetal malformations before birth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal%E2%80%93fetal_medicine). It also allows you to timely detect missed pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, determine the cause of bleeding during pregnancy, suspect the presence of a chromosomal pathology in the fetus (for example, Down’s syndrome). The safety of ultrasound during pregnancy has long been beyond doubt and has been confirmed by studies by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, during which no changes were found in mammalian tissues and cells when exposed to ultrasound. This method has been used for more than 30 years, and there was no evidence of the occurrence of any complications in the fetus.
An ultrasound examination of the fetus, which is performed at 18-22 weeks of gestation, is the most important examination of the fetus during the entire pregnancy. Ultrasound of the fetus in this period is also called anatomical or morphological scanning. It includes measuring the size of the fetus (fetometry) to assess its growth, assessing the anatomical structures of the fetus to detect congenital malformations (heart, stomach, intestines, kidneys, brain, facial structures, etc.), assessing the position of the placenta and assessing amount of amniotic fluid.
During the anatomical scan, you can also find out the sex of the child. Many parents are concerned about this issue, especially if the family already has children. In most cases, determining the sex of the fetus does not cause difficulties, however, sometimes the fetus assumes a position that does not allow a clear visualization of the genitals. In this case, it is recommended to repeat the study after a while.
In our center, ultrasound examination of fetuses is performed by highly qualified specialists who achieve high measurement accuracy even in women with an increased body mass index, when the accuracy of diagnosis with ultrasound is usually lower, since the fat layer makes it difficult to visualize the organs and structures of the fetus.