The launch of the UW Health Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center was announced Tuesday.
The new center is a collaboration between UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter to help support pregnant patients and their unborn babies with birth defects before, during, and after birth.
According to UW Health, birth defects affect one in every 33 babies born in the United States. The field of fetal surgery allows for these birth defects to not only be diagnosed long before birth, but new research has allowed for surgical treatment of many conditions before the baby is born.
The center includes maternal-fetal specialists, pediatric surgeons, neonatologists and multiple pediatric sub-specialties. The center helps to bring these services to the expectant family in one convenient appointment, according to Dr. Inna Lobeck, pediatric and fetal surgeon and director of UW Health Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center and assistant professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
