National experts in complex pregnancy care visit Townsville

Passion for complex pregnancy care brought national experts to Townsville over the weekend for the first-ever maternal fetal medicine conference.

North Queensland Maternal Fetal Medicine Unit director Dr David Watson and sonographer Dr Sonja Brennan attended the first-ever maternal fetal medicine conference. Picture: Supplied.

The demands of some of the region’s most vulnerable mothers and bubs has been spotlighted at a conference headlined by Townsville’s leading maternal medicine unit.

Complex growth disorders and heart and genetic abnormalities were the headline topic at the inaguaral Townsville maternal fetal medicine conference.

Hosted by Townsville University Hospital’s NQ Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) unit, the conference featured national and local experts in the fields of maternal health, neonatology, and fetal sonography.

Conference delegates included obstetricians, sonographers, midwives and radiologists explored the complications of pregnancy and conditions diagnosed in the womb including fetal growth disorders and heart and genetic abnormalities.

Unit director David Watson said the conference was the first time so many experts in the field had gathered in North Queensland.

“Ours is the only dedicated maternal fetal medicine service in the region and we look after mothers with high-risk, complex pregnancies and multiple pregnancies like twins and triplets,” Dr Watson said.

“The conference is an opportunity to hear from interstate experts as well as our local medical specialists on the detection, care, and management of mothers with complications of pregnancy and babies with fetal abnormalities.”

He said teamwork was key to the success of the MFM unit, and they were very fortunate to have experienced MFM midwives and sonographers as part of this specialised area.

Education is fundamental to the delivery of a world-class MFM service, with the conference providing a major teaching and learning opportunity for local clinicians.

“Pregnant women understandably have a degree of anxiety about their pregnancies and are hypervigilant to anything going wrong,” he said.

“Our specialty provides reassurance by successfully managing high-risk pregnancies and, in cases where something is not going as well as we would like, we can have honest and open conversations with women and their partners,” he said.

The service performs around 3500 scans each year and has seen more than 2700 women since last July.

Originally published as National experts in complex pregnancy care visit Townsville