A brand-new £1.4million Fetal Medicine Unit has opened its doors to women and birthing people at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
The Fetal Medicine service is a highly specialist part of maternity care which provides consultant and midwife clinics and offers treatments to support families with complications affecting an unborn baby, such as fetal anaemia.
A dedicated Fetal Medicine Unit has been several years in the planning as the service has outgrown the current small space it occupies in the Antenatal clinic.
In addition, the new unit allows Fetal Medicine colleagues to work on one site in the same space providing a more easily coordinated, efficient and integrated service.
Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery at NUH, said: “The Fetal Medicine department has developed over many years to become the service it is today which makes a difference to the lives of so many families.
“Until now, the Fetal Medicine team has worked out of the antenatal clinics at the QMC and City hospitals in cramped spaces which are no longer suitable for the needs of the service and the women and families in our care. The team have continued to provide excellent care in less-than-ideal environments.
“This location meant that there was a lack of privacy for families at some of the most difficult moments of their lives, and our staff were unable to deliver and develop the service to its full potential.
“We are therefore pleased to be able to support our highly-skilled Fetal Medicine colleagues by providing them with a working environment they deserve, and a much better experience for our families.”
One of the women who has received treatment from the Fetal Medicine team is Liberty Richards, a teacher who contracted a virus whilst pregnant which led to her unborn baby developing severe anaemia and requiring a blood transfusion in the womb.
The 24-year-old from Bingham explained why a dedicated space for the Fetal Medicine team is so important for families, rather than the former space based within the Antenatal clinic.
She said: “When I was walking through the antenatal clinic I did think ‘I wonder if all these women who are there for their scans and vaccines know where people are going when we walk through, and what we are going through’.
“I think the new unit will make it easier for women and families who are not going through the nicest time, and having it separate also means that when you are in the waiting room there is some comfort in knowing we are not the only people on the planet going through this.”
Case study
Pregnant teacher who caught virus praises NUH’s Fetal Medicine department for saving her unborn baby’s life
A teacher who contracted a virus whilst pregnant has praised the NUH Fetal Medicine department for carrying out a blood transfusion on her unborn baby to save her life.
Liberty Richards, 24, an Early Years teacher living in Bingham with her partner, Thomas, was approximately 14-15 weeks pregnant with her first child when, through work, she came into contact with someone who was later confirmed to have ‘slapped cheek syndrome’ (Parvovirus).
This exposure caused her to ring the maternity advice line immediately, and blood tests over the following few weeks proved that she had contracted the virus whilst being pregnant, as her body had created antibodies it did not have earlier in her pregnancy, so she was referred to the NUH Fetal Medicine team.”
A Parvovirus infection contracted early in pregnancy can cause severe fetal anaemia, which has a 50% mortality rate for unborn babies.
Thankfully the Fetal Medicine team were able to rescue her unborn baby girl through a fetal blood transfusion, something that only NUH does out of all the East Midlands fetal medicine services.
Liberty explained that once it had been confirmed that she had contracted Parvovirus, she was quickly booked in for a scan to check on her baby.
She said: “They explained to me that the virus can stall the placenta and impact the baby’s ability to create red blood cells.
“Therefore, they were looking at the blood flow to the baby’s brain, because if it was elevated then it was a sign of anaemia as it showed her body was working hard to pump the blood around.
It was not immediately evident whether Liberty’s baby had been affected by the virus so she had weekly scans, but by the time she was 21 weeks pregnant, the baby had fluid around her heart, it was clear that she had severe fetal anaemia and needed a blood transfusion to survive.
This procedure is carried out by inserting a needle into one of the foetus’s arteries and some of her blood is taken to test to see how poorly the unborn baby is and how much blood she needs.
In Liberty’s case, her baby had a red blood cell count of 42, when it should be 180 at that point in the pregnancy. The Fetal Medicine team then inserted the amount of blood she needed via the same needle.
Liberty said: “The procedure was so well organised to almost military standards, and the Fetal Medicine team explained exactly what they were going to do.
“The worst thing and most overreaching feeling was ‘I wish it had been me who had been poorly, not my baby’, and there had been nothing that my body could do to stop the virus from reaching her.
“It was hard because the doctors said they wouldn’t be able to tell straight away if the transfusion had been successful. Since being referred to the Fetal Medicine unit, we didn’t buy anything for the baby because we felt like we would be tempting fate.
“It was only when I had my 28-week scan that they were able to say we were out of the woods and that she would be okay, which is when we went to buy a pram. We were so excited – it was like we had been holding our breath until hearing the all clear.”
The Fetal Medicine team continued to see Liberty until she was 32 weeks pregnant when they were confident that everything was normal. Her little girl is due on 30 October.
Liberty said: “The Fetal Medicine team are just amazing. Everyone was very lovely and so kind, and they couldn’t do enough for me.
“On the day of the transfusion they were so accommodating to my mum and partner as well, which meant a lot.”
Liberty also explained that the old Fetal Medicine facilities within the Antenatal clinic felt strange and so she is pleased that the team now have their own purpose-built unit.
She said: “When I was walking through the antenatal clinic I did think ‘I wonder if all these women who are there for their scans and vaccines know where people are going when we walk through, and what we are going through’.
“I think the new unit will make it easier for women and families who are not going through the nicest time, and having it separate also means that when you are in the waiting room there is some comfort in knowing we are not the only people on the planet going through this.”
