When a family learns their unborn child has a birth defect, they need accurate information and expert treatment from a caring and compassionate team to ensure the best possible outcome. The Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the most active maternal-fetal care centers in the world, with unmatched expertise and experience. Center leaders were among the founders of modern fetal medicine, working alongside other leading surgeons and researchers to develop the techniques used clinically today around the world. Watch clinicians and families share what makes the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment the best place for prenatal diagnosis, fetal care and fetal surgery.
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Fetal Diagnosis and Fetal Surgery: The World’s Most Experienced Fetal Care Center
Stephanie, mom: Even though she hadn't been born yet, we wanted her to have the absolute best care possible.
Lori Howell, DNP: When families call us, they have received devastating news and they call us really for hope. We focus on babies with a birth defect. This is what we do.
Dr Adzick: As a patient, as a mother carrying a baby with a birth defect, you want the best possible care from an incredibly caring team. That's what we provide.
Julie Moldenhauer, MD: We have a very large multidisciplinary team that has specialists from pretty much any specialty that you could imagine in conjunction with prenatal diagnosticians, maternal fetal medicine specialists and genetic specialists who are able to provide a very comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the fetus and provide the parents with the best family-centered care that we can, going forward.
Dr Adzick: We not only do prenatal diagnosis, but we also do, in highly selective circumstances, fetal surgery.
Julie Moldenhauer, MD: The hope with prenatal surgery is that we can alter the course in a long-term outcome.
Stephanie: From the very beginning, CHOP offered us hope. They showed us that there was a different way, there was a better way.
Dr. Adzick: We do our research, we do our investigation because we have an obligation to perform research. Research represents hope.
Lori Howell, DNP: The Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit was the first birthing unit dedicated exclusively to healthy mothers whose unborn baby has a birth defect.
Susan Spinner, MSN: The unit was designed so that babies that are born that have birth defects, have accessibility to a very specialized team of doctors and nurses.
Lori Howell: Every day, I am in awe of what our team does. Families trust us with their lives.
Susan Spinner: This work that we do is life changing, miracle making work. We love what we do and it's an honor and a privilege to be able to be part of this journey with our patients.
Stephanie: Each child has the ability to be incredible, just like Miah. No matter what function they come out with, they will be an incredible child.
Topics Covered: Fetal Surgery Spina Bifida Causes, Symptoms and Treatment, Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), Fetal Lung Lesions, Conjoined Twins, Gastroschisis, Omphalocele, Lower Urinary Tract Obstruction (LUTO), Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS), Twin Reversed Arterial Perfusion Sequence (TRAP Sequence), Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction (sIUGR), Sacrococcygeal Teratoma (SCT), Bronchopulmonary Sequestration (BPS), CCAM/CPAM: Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation (Pulmonary Airway Malformation), Fetal Giant Neck Masses, Fetal Pleural Effusion, Hybrid Lesions, Hydrocephalus, Skeletal Dysplasias, Congenital High Airway Obstruction Syndrome (CHAOS), Bronchogenic Cyst, Congenital Lobar Emphysema (CLE) Prenatal Genetic Counseling in a Fetal Center
Related Centers and Programs: Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit
