From the moment your obstetrician discovers an abnormality through ultrasound or genetic testing, the dynamic of your pregnancy changes. Our Maternal Care Program, an integral part of The Fetal Center, offers comprehensive, streamlined prenatal care to mothers and their babies with congenital or genetic anomalies that result in high-risk pregnancies.

Mothers transferred to the Maternal Care Program are referred by their obstetricians and evaluated by a high-risk maternal-fetal specialist. From evaluation throughout the duration of your pregnancy, you will receive prenatal care exclusively within The Fetal Center.

Our team will review your medical, surgical, and prior pregnancy history to identify any medical conditions that need special attention. All physician appointments occur at the same time as your ultrasounds or pediatric consultations. Laboratory tests and physical exams are performed within our clinic at The Fetal Center, and if you experience any symptoms, we address them immediately. We also provide all medication prescriptions and prepare any documents you may need for medical leave from your employer. For your convenience, we perform assessments for symptoms of preterm labor, preeclampsia, and diabetes in our clinic when possible, rather than in the hospital. We screen all patients for depression, anxiety, and provide treatment within The Fetal Center. We keep your primary obstetrician informed about your condition, your baby’s health, , and all the care that we provided.

We also provide frequent and intense fetal surveillance as needed for mothers who choose to undergo innovative in utero fetal surgery or spend their pregnancy preparing for postnatal treatments for their newborns. Mothers who undergo successful surgeries return to their referring obstetricians for care. If you need specialized pediatric care that other facilities do not provide, you may choose to stay with us at The Fetal Center and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

We also work closely with fetal interventionalists, pediatric specialists, and you and your family to develop a birth plan that meets your unique needs. The timing and mode of delivery are coordinated to ensure that all members of the delivery team are available when you give birth.

A good, well-coordinated plan helps lead to a successful delivery for you, your baby, and optimize birth outcomes.

We carefully plan for coordinated care during delivery to ensure that the appropriate maternal-fetal medicine team members, specialized nurses, and necessary treatment interventions, such as ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), are available if needed. Our goal is to ensure that your baby is delivered safely and transferred to the appropriate team for care.

We present complicated pregnancies at The Fetal Center’s weekly multidisciplinary meeting to ensure close coordination of prenatal and postnatal care. After you, your family, and our team establish your birth plan, we work closely with you to help you follow the recommendations.

Many patients struggle during the postpartum period. Most babies born with anomalies are delivered by cesarean section (C-section) and taken immediately to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where our clinical team follows them with regular visits. We focus on excellent C-section care so that most mothers can go to the NICU to see their babies a few hours after having had major abdominal surgery.

As they recover from the delivery, many of our mothers find that they suffer from anxiety caused by fear of the unknown about the health of their baby. The Maternal Care Program team sees them more frequently than routine prenatal and postpartum patients see their doctors. Ordinarily, we see our patients at one to two weeks after delivery and again at six weeks. If a mother appears to be developing postpartum anxiety or depression, our team meets with them every two weeks, and we see them for longer than six weeks if necessary.

When you reach six weeks postpartum with no problems, we transfer your care back to your primary obstetrician, following up with a written summary of your pregnancy, delivery, and the care you and your baby received to keep your obstetrician informed.

When mothers come back for their postnatal checkups, we welcome them to stop by so that we can watch their babies grow toward normal lives.