Obstetric referrals
- Preterm delivery symptoms - The success rate of preventing preterm delivery is particularly high, and women are treated medically to delay labor and to allow fetal lung maturation
- Bleeding due to placental problems
- High blood pressure in pregnancy (including pregnancy-induced hypertension and chronic hypertension)
- Inappropriate fetal size (small and large for gestational age)
- Treatment and monitoring of pregnancy-induced diabetes
- Premature rupture of membranes
- Twins and multiple pregnancies
- Insufficient amniotic fluid
- Injury during pregnancy
- Treatment for fetal hemolytic disease
- Fetal hydrops
- Congenital defects
The department coordinates care with neonatal specialists for pre-delivery consultation in women at high risk for preterm delivery as well as for fetal anomalies, which may require special treatment or work-up for their newborns.
Interdisciplinary care is also coordinated with the staff of the Ultrasound Institute, who perform scans to identify problems and offer options for in-utero interventions when needed.
Non-obstetric referrals
The department treats and follows women with chronic illnesses which may be exacerbated during pregnancy or which may impact pregnancy, such as:
- Renal disease
- Asthma and respiratory illnesses
- Gastrointestinal diseases
- Thrombocytopenia
- Thromboembolic diseases
- Cardiac disease
- Neurological disorders such as epilepsy
- Connective tissue diseases such as lupus (SLE)
- Acute and chronic infections
Pregnant women with these chronic conditions are cared for by the perinatology staff of the High Risk Pregnancy Unit, taking into account both the mother's health issues and the fetus' well-being.
Women with high-risk pregnancies may at some point require active induction of labor. The induction process is begun in the unit, and the women are transferred to the Labor and Delivery Unit, which then manages the delivery.
Committed staff
The department staff includes doctors, nurses, midwives, social workers, and psychologists. For the benefit of each patient, ongoing collaboration takes place with specialists across various disciplines, such as general surgery, cardiology, hematology, endocrinology, neurology, and internal medicine.
A high-risk pregnancy pioneer
The Maternal Fetal Medicine department is a leader in Israel and around the world in research and treatment of the relationship between high-risk pregnancy (such as toxemia, inappropriate fetal size, placental abruption, fetal death in utero, and recurrent spontaneous abortion) and maternal coagulopathy (a tendency to develop blood clots).
Research and treatment of these conditions is done hand-in-hand with the Medical Center’s Hematology Institute. Women from around the country are referred to the unit for consultation and medical care. The Unit for High Risk Pregnancy staff is invited to lecture and consult on the subject around the world, including participation in initiatives sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. In addition to clinical work, the unit actively engages in academic activity—in medical research, clinical trials, instruction, and lectures at the medical and nursing schools of Tel Aviv University.
