Maternal-fetal medicine faculty provide clinical care for women through the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology's partnership with Indiana University Health. Maternal-fetal medicine specialists work with all obstetric providers, including obstetricians, nurses, pediatricians, residents, fellows and some medical students, to care for high-risk pregnancies. The team works together to determine the best care for patients.
The division provides care at Riley Hospital for Children, IU Health North Hospital, Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital and the Community Health System. In recent years, it expanded its clinical services to Bloomington, including the addition of telemedicine for remote ultrasound reading.
Patients could be considered to have a high-risk pregnancy because of a number of conditions or complications. These include preexisting conditions like diabetes, chronic high blood pressure or obesity. It could also include complications from previous pregnancies, having multiple babies in one pregnancy, problems with fetus growth or birth defects that require more specialized care or treatments.
The department offers a variety of specialized programs to meet the needs of even the most complex pregnancies.
The Maternal Cardiac Care program is a collaboration between maternal-fetal medicine and cardiology. Staffed by Caroline Rouse, MD, this clinic provides up-to-date, evidence-based recommendations to care for patients with complex cardiac conditions.
The Diabetes in Pregnancy Program provides comprehensive care for patients with diabetes, including on-site diabetes education, and the Maternal Recovery Program provides social work support, mental health care and opiate replacement therapy in one location.
Fetal Care Center provides pregnancies complicated by a prenatally-diagnosed birth defect access to comprehensive imaging and genetic evaluation as well as multidisciplinary consultation with MFM, neonatology and pediatric subspecialties.
The division also works closely with Riley Hospital for Children, the Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Pediatric Surgery to establish a fetal intervention program.
Maternal-fetal medicine specialists complete a residency in OB-GYN as well as three extra years of training in maternal-fetal medicine through a fellowship. They have advanced knowledge and training in medical, surgical, fetal, obstetrical and genetic aspects of pregnancy and are able to provide peer and patient education to ensure mothers and babies get the treatments they need.