June 20, 2017

Improving outcomes for mothers and babies

The Junior League Center for Advanced Maternal-Fetal Care provides the most advanced diagnostic evaluation and care for mothers whose unborn baby has a congenital problem. The maternal-fetal center coordinates care and emotional support throughout the pregnancy as well as after delivery and includes a clinical program in fetal diagnosis and therapy along with clinical and basic research programs.

Some of the conditions that are treated at the center include:

  • Cleft lip and cleft palate
  • Congenital cystic lung abnormalities
  • Congenital heart disease
  • Genetic abnormalities
  • Intestinal abnormalities
  • Myelomeningocele and hydrocephalus
  • Other complex prenatal abnormalities

Members of the fetal surgery team at Vanderbilt pioneered the innovative surgical procedure to repair myelomeningocele, the most serious form of spina bifida. Surgeons at Vanderbilt performed the first-ever in-utero repair for this condition in 1997. Internationally recognized for its expertise in the field, The maternal-fetal center has performed more than 300 in-utero repairs of myelomeningocele.