Fetal care

Fetal Care Unit

The majority of pregnancies are uncomplicated and result in the birth of a healthy baby. But for some women developments may occur that need more specialist care in pregnancy. We perform scans and other tests (chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis, amnio reduction, fetal blood sampling, fetal blood transfusions, maternal blood test, MRI) to give us more information, so together we can plan appropriate care for mother and baby.

The Fetal Care Unit is run by a multi-disciplinary team including Doctors, Midwives and receptionists.

The team within Fetal Care works closely with other specialists such as neonatologists, paediatricians, cardiologists, paediatric surgeons, geneticist, counsellor etc. to provide holistic care for all our clients.

The Team cares for women and their families whose babies:

• are suspected/ found to have a problem, seen with an ultrasound scan.
• have a higher than usual chance of having a baby with a problem either highlighted following screening (e.g. combined or quadruple screening for Down syndrome). Or following previous birth of a baby with a chromosomal / genetic problem.
• are at risk of developing fetal anaemia in pregnancy (e.g. maternal antibodies, viral infections).
• are at increased risk of developing growth discrepancy ( e.g. identical twins).

Women are also referred to the Fetal Care unit by their GP for pre - conceptual advice.


The Fetal Care Unit (FCU) is open daily Monday to Friday (except bank holidays) 0830hrs-1230hrs and 1330hrs-1700hrs.

We are located on the ground floor within the Nottingham City Hospital Campus Maternity Unit in the Antenatal Clinic.

Contact no: 0115 9691169 ext 56480.

Sources of help

All people have different needs in the amount of information they require and access to support groups; the following are useful contacts for information and support

Antenatal Results and Choices; 0207 631 0280 www.arc-uk.org/

Down's Syndrome Association; 08452 300 372 [Mon - Fri. 9am - 4pm] http://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk

Twins and Multiple Births Association (TAMBA) http://www.tamba.org.uk