Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment: A Tour

Learn what to expect at your first appointment to the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment. http://fetalsurgery.chop.edu/tour

Learning your baby has a birth defect can be overwhelming. The journey ahead may seem unclear, and the fear of the unknown can be incredibly difficult. The expert team at the Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment has cared for many families and will help you through your journey, too.

In this video, Shelly, a mom who traveled from Massachusetts for care at the Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment (CFDT), discusses the team you will meet and what will happen at your first appointment at the center in an effort to help you feel more comfortable about what to expect when you arrive.

Since 1995, the center’s team has been at the forefront of understanding, diagnosing and treating conditions such as spina bifida, congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), twin-twin transfusion syndrome, omphalocele, gastroschisis, and fetal lung lesions.

The center’s team has cared for more than 27,000 families from all 50 states and over 70 countries. They see rare and complex fetal conditions every day and continue to advance innovations that improve outcomes for mothers and babies. Every member of the center’s elite team is compassionate and dedicated to providing the best medical care imaginable.

Every detail of the center’s space has been designed with a family’s medical and emotional well-being in mind. Patient care rooms are private and warm, to make you as comfortable as possible. Safety is a priority at the center. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has put every precaution in place to keep you and your family safe.

Your first appointment at the center will be a very full day, with a lot of information gathered and discussed with you. Your fetal therapy coordinator will be with you throughout the day to care for you and help you get to all of your appointments.

Other team members you may meet during your evaluation include a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, reproductive geneticist, fetal and pediatric surgeon, and a genetic counselor. The center also has a dedicated psychosocial team that includes a clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist, social workers, a child life specialist and a chaplain, all there to provide emotional support, counseling, and other services throughout your pregnancy.

The goal of the day is to provide the most accurate diagnosis of your baby’s condition. You will undergo a combination of tests including fetal ultrasound, fetal echocardiogram and, possibly, ultra-fast fetal MRI. The center’s team has the world’s greatest experience in prenatal diagnosis and care of babies with birth defects.

At the end of the evaluation, the team will review the images to confirm the diagnosis, explain your baby’s condition in language you understand, review options for the pregnancy and answer any questions and provide you with educational material about the prenatal diagnosis.

The team will make sure you have the information and support you need to make the best decisions for you and your family. They will also partner closely with you and your home doctor to come up with the best plan for your care.

If you learn your baby’s condition requires fetal surgery, you will be in the very best hands. This team has performed more fetal surgeries than any in the world.

Most of the time, your baby will be delivered at a hospital near your home with follow-up care provided there, or, depending on your baby’s condition, delivery may take place in the Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit, the world’s first birth facility in a freestanding pediatric hospital designed for healthy mothers carrying babies with known birth defects or genetic conditions.

This full labor and delivery unit that offers immediate access to the neonatal and surgical experts a baby may need. The team is made up of experienced labor and delivery nurses, specially trained operating room nurses, and all attending-level physicians. After birth, babies are cared for in our Harriet and Ronald Lassin Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit (N/IICU), ranked among the best in the nation.

Other diagnoses the center has expertise in include bronchogenic cyst, bronchopulmonary sequestration, CCAM/CPAM, cleft lip and palate, congenital high airway obstruction syndrome (CHAOS), congenital lobar emphysema (CLE), conjoined twins, fetal giant neck masses, generalized arterial calcification of infancy (GACI), hybrid lesions, hydrocephalus, laryngeal atresia, lower urinary tract obstruction (LUTO), pleural effusion, sacrococcygeal teratoma, selective intrauterine growth restriction (sIUGR), skeletal dysplasia, small bowel atresia, and twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence.

Видео Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment: A Tour канала The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia