The first two months of pregnancy can be very concerning for many women as symptoms such as vaginal bleeding and abdominal cramping are quite common. This leads to concerns about whether the pregnancy is developing normally or might result in a miscarriage or even an ectopic pregnancy.
Complete Specialist Care
Accessing Services
Since it can often be difficult to access hospital services in a timely manner to obtain ultrasound scans to confirm normal pregnancy, the RCSI Fetal Medicine Centre can provide whatever advice and support may be required directly by patients.
Contact The Centre
Specialists
The RCSI Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology is recognised internationally for its leadership in the area of obstetric ultrasound, prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis. Expertise in subspecialist obstetric areas is maximised by being at the forefront of clinical research in this field. Some of the latest innovations in early pregnancy screening tests for fetal abnormalities have been advanced internationally by the RCSI Fetal Centre at the Rotunda Hospital.
Fetal Specialists
Available Scans
One of the most common concerns voiced by women once a positive pregnancy test is obtained is the question “is my baby healthy?” Unfortunately, both information and access to appropriate ultrasound scans and tests can be difficult for many pregnant women to obtain in a timely manner. Detailed information on various obstetric ultrasound, prenatal screening, and prenatal diagnosis tests that are commonly requested during pregnancy is available here
Early Pregnancy Scans
NIPT Testing
The non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) is a new screening test that helps us to identify if your baby is likely to have a chromosomal abnormality, for example, Down syndrome, (Trisomy 21), Edward syndrome (Trisomy 18) or Patau syndrome (Trisomy 13). The blood test can be performed from 9 weeks of pregnancy onwards.
NIPT Testing
Fetal Medicine
Fetal medicine focuses on the management of high risk pregnancies and includes the assessment of fetal (unborn baby) growth and the diagnosis of fetal illness and abnormality. Fetal medicine can be broadly divided into two branches: prenatal diagnosis and fetal treatment. Prenatal diagnosis is the ability to detect abnormal conditions of the fetus. The most common test used for prenatal diagnosis is ultrasound. Some abnormalities may be identified from additional blood screening or invasive diagnostic tests. Fetal treatment includes a series of interventions performed on the fetus with the aim of achieving fetal wellbeing. These interventions include medical (non-invasive) and surgical procedures.
Fetal Medicine