The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Opens the World's First Delivery Unit for Mothers Diagnosed with Birth Defect...(tology staff can be waiting to carefor a...),Health

Outpatient services will also be housed on Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit. Housed across the unit from the inpatient area, the outpatient area will be staffed by a dedicated team of radiologists, ultrasound and echocardiogram technicians, sonographers and nurses. When a family comes to the Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit for an evaluation, they will have a series of tests all in one single day -- a level II ultrasound, an ultrafast fetal MRI and an echocardiogram. After the images are evaluated, the team sits down with the family to discuss the diagnosis and treatment options.

This is the first delivery unit at Children's Hospital and the first special delivery unit in a children's hospital dedicated to high-risk pregnancies, and Dr. Adzick believes the new unit will provide an environment more conducive to developing and perfecting fetal treatments to cure disease.

It is estimated that 50 percent of the babies born in the unit will have congenital heart defects. The SDU will be located near the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit and all of Children's Hospital's specialty services will be immediately available.

"Advanced imaging allows us today to diagnose congenital anomalies prior to birth, and these babies and their mothers need careful, ongoing monitoring," said Jack Rychik, M.D., director of the Fetal Heart Program in the Cardiac Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Babies diagnosed with birth defects in utero need to have specialized obstetrics and delivery services and often need management and care before or immediately after birth."

The Garbose Family Special Delivery Un
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