Fetal Center

What to Expect

Our team's goal is to conduct a complete evaluation of you and your baby soon after a referral is made. Before your appointment, a Fetal Care Coordinator will contact you to:

• Explain your day of testing and evaluation
• Give information about your appointment times and locations
• Answer any questions you have about your day at Riley
• Provide brochures and maps to guide you through the day

At any time, your Fetal Care Coordinator is available to answer questions or address concerns you may have.

Your Visit to the Fetal Center

Your first visit to the Fetal Center will be a day of diagnostic testing and evaluation. Feel free to bring a friend or family member with you for support.

Our evaluation starts with a comprehensive ultrasound performed by our maternal-fetal medicine team. Depending on the suspected diagnosis, you may need advanced fetal imaging, including fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) read by a specialty-trained fetal radiologist and fetal echocardiogram conducted by pediatric cardiologists. Additional specialists will meet with you, depending on your baby's needs.

For your convenience and comfort, you will do all your testing and specialist consultations at Riley at IU Health.

Once the diagnostic tests are completed, the team will meet with you and your family. This team will consist of your maternal-fetal medicine physician, a neonatologist, and other specialists such as fetal interventionalists. They will share your testing results, discuss the diagnosis in detail, explain your baby's long-term outcomes and provide a collaborative plan for your care and baby’s care through the remainder of the pregnancy, delivery and after birth.

Riley Children's Health has a multidisciplinary fetal care conference that regularly brings more than 50 of our specialists from across the hospital to consult and recommend treatment plans for families. This engagement allows your baby's care and plan to be understood and managed with all of your needs in mind – medical, social or financial. You will also receive advice and recommendations from a comprehensive nationally-ranked medical team.

You will receive a packet with information about the diagnosis to take home. Additionally, your Fetal Care Coordinator remains available for questions long after your appointment, including connecting you to additional care team members to have your questions answered.

We understand that sometimes the information can be overwhelming, and we will remain a committed partner throughout. If you would like to speak with families that have received treatment through the Fetal Center at Riley Children's Health, we can help connect you with them.

Fetal Surgery

While most fetal conditions are managed through noninvasive treatments, some conditions may require fetal surgery. At Riley Children’s, we offer fetal surgery with the latest fetal interventions and procedures performed by fetal interventionalists in our Maternity Tower at Riley Hospital for Children.

Fetal surgery is an advanced intervention to repair a fetal condition while your baby is still in the womb, improving the chances of the best possible outcome. These procedures are not only seen as fetal interventions, but as maternal-fetal interventions. We are focused on both the baby’s as well as your safety before, during and after the procedure – and leading-up to your delivery.

All procedures are supported by a multidisciplinary team that is available 24/7. Our highly skilled team of experts is the only in Indiana performing these complex, delicate procedures. Our goal is to prevent life-threatening situations and improving your baby’s chance of survival. The fetal interventions we offer include:

• Selective fetoscopic laser photocoagulation (SFLP)
• Vesico-amniotic and thoracic-amniotic shunts
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Amniotic band release