As a leading tertiary referral hospital, Mater Mothers' hospitals have established a high quality service in maternal-fetal medicine to provide expert diagnosis and management of complex obstetric cases at the hospital.

Services

A comprehensive range of screening, diagnostic and therapeutic services are on offer including:

• routine and tertiary level ultrasound
• fetal echocardiography
• first trimester ultrasound screening
• counselling for pregnancy and fetal complications
• invasive testing—amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, fetal blood sampling
• intrauterine vascular/peritoneal transfusions
• intrauterine shunting operations
• fetoscopic and other minimally invasive fetal surgery
• fetoscopic laser ablation for Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome
• high risk obstetrical consultations
• day ward assessment for high-risk pregnancies (high blood pressure, preterm premature rupture of membranes, fetal monitoring, hyperemesis gravidarum, etc.)
• tele-ultrasound and tele-consultations.

The Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Mater is staffed by a team comprising of four full-time specialists in maternal-fetal medicine, a visiting specialist sonologists, two training fellows, four accredited sonographers, midwives, genetic counsellors, counsellor and administration staff. We have close liaisons with neonatologists, paediatricians, paediatric surgeons, geneticists, paediatric cardiologists, paediatric nephrologists, obstetric physicians, obstetric anaesthetists, perinatal pathologists and cytogeneticists based at Mater hospitals.

The unit is situated on the second floor at Mater Mothers' Hospital. It consists of three ultrasound scan rooms, a day ward, counselling rooms, a reception waiting area, a small laboratory, an education centre and a small conference room with telemedicine facilities. The centre uses high-end ultrasound equipment, with a computer database network. It currently performs over 9000 scans per year, 1200 of which are tertiary referrals from all over Queensland and Northern New South Wales. It provides a full range of prenatal diagnostic and therapeutic options and is very active in research, collaborating with a wide range of perinatal specialists and scientists. It has an excellent reputation for providing quality and compassionate care to women and babies with complex complications in pregnancy, in accordance with the philosophy and tradition of the Sisters of Mercy.

Contact

Mater Centre for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Level 2, Mater Mothers' Hospital
Raymond Terrace
South Brisbane Qld 4101

Phone: +61 7 3163 1896
Fax: +61 7 3163 1890
E-mail: Barbara.Soong@mater.org.au