Regular monitoring of foetus can prevent perinatal deaths, says expert

Nagpur: “Monitoring the foetus in high risk pregnancies in perinatal period (a few weeks immediately before and after birth) using simple techniques like ‘cardio-toco-graphy’ can prevent still births as well as abnormalities in babies,” said Dr Patrick J O’Brien from Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) here on Friday at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Dr Patrick was speaking at pre-conference workshop ‘Preventing Still Birth’ and ‘Critical Care in Obstetrics’ organized jointly by the Nagpur Obstetrics and gynaecology Society (NOGS), the Federation of Gynaecological Societies of India (FGSI) and the RCOG as part of the national conference of NOGS.

Cardio-toco-graphy machine measures foetal heart rate and detects abnormality in it. It also picks up abnormalities during the intra-partum (during delivery) phase. Dr Patrick described four different cases and showed how regular monitoring helped in saving babies of mothers with very high risks.

Dr Suchitra Pandit, organizing chairperson of the workshop, stressed on the need for perinatal audit. She said perinatal audit was very important to get an insight into the causes of deaths of babies or understanding the cause of the death.

She said at present a home-monitoring device like the cardio-toco-graphy was also available. The mother can be easily trained in interpreting the results and alert the obstetrician. This, she said, decreased the anxiety associated with hospitalization of the patient.

Critical situations arise when least expected at odd hours when help is minimal. The past decade has witnessed phenomenal progress in the diagnosis and management of high risk pregnancies, she added.

Other topics discussed in the workshop included optimizing perinatal outcome in gestational diabetes, monitoring IUGR, and improving perinatal outcomes in hypertension in pregnancy. The sessions were chaired by Dr Raj Bhojwani and Dr Rujuta Fuke. In second session, topics included optimizing perinatal outcome in twin foetal demise in one of twins, breaking bad news about a still birth, managing a case with previous still birth.

Dr Varsha Lahade and Dr Manjula Rohatgi chaired the session presented by Dr Sujata Dalvi, Dr Vandana Bansal, Dr Kshama Kedar, Dr Jayan Kannan and Dr Masushami Tadas. Head gynaecology at GMCH Dr Juzar Fidvi, Dr Vaishali Chavan and Dr Nirmala Vaze chaired another session. NOGS President Dr Kanachan Sortery welcomed the delegates. Dr Sushma Deshmukh, secretary NOGS, proposed a vote of thanks.