About the Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment

Fetal Team group photo The Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is an internationally recognized leader in fetal diagnosis, fetal surgery and fetal care. We offer highly specialized care to mothers carrying fetuses with known birth defects that require fetal surgery and treatment before or after birth.

Here at our Center you’ll find comprehensive, family-centered care in one location, from advanced diagnostic testing, prenatal management and fetal surgery to a special delivery unit, counseling and support services, and expert postnatal care. Our Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit was the world’s first birthing unit dedicated to healthy mothers of babies with known birth defects.

Our care is shaped by our belief that the fetus is a separate patient. Every member of our multidisciplinary team is an expert in caring for both unborn babies and their mothers. We treat the full range of fetal anomalies, from the routine to the rare.

Since 1995, we’ve cared for more than 32,015 expectant parents from around the world and performed more than 2,328 fetal surgeries, an unparalleled level of experience caring for the tiniest patients before, during and after delivery that helps us achieve the best outcomes possible for your baby.

We’re one of the few fetal centers in the world to offer open fetal surgery for life-threatening conditions, as well as a variety of other fetal interventions such as minimally invasive fetoscopic surgery and ex utero intrapartum therapy. Our team is made up of pioneers in fetal medicine who constantly work to refine and advance the techniques used to treat birth defects.

From the first phone call to our Center, we coordinate all of your treatment, offering information and support every step of the way and partnering closely with your physicians back home.

En Español »

Screenshot of CFDT tour video

Tour our Fetal Center

Watch this video tour to learn what to expect at your first visit to the Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment.

Pregnant Mom and Child

What to Expect

From the moment of referral through delivery and postnatal care, your family can expect a supportive experience when you come to us with a diagnosis of a birth defect.


You Might Also Like
Reagan sleeping

Fighting the Odds

Fetal surgery during a pandemic? It happened at CHOP and Reagan's family will be forever grateful.

Nurse holding newborn

The World’s Most Experienced Fetal Care Center

Clinicians and families share what makes the Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment the best place for prenatal diagnosis, fetal care and fetal surgery.

Hendrix's face

FETO Saves Hendrix’s Life

A prenatal procedure to treat CDH gives baby’s lungs room to grow.