Perinatal Care

Learning that your soon-to-be-born baby may have a complication can be overwhelming. You’re probably filled with concerns and may not know where to start. That’s where we come in—to help every step of the way.

For more than a decade, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, has been giving children the very best start in life by offering fetal testing and specialist consultations for babies in utero (in the mother’s womb).

Now, through our Nemours Partners for Perinatal Management program, we work with expectant parents facing a possible congenital (present at birth) condition or defect. We help you try to get an early fetal diagnosis and figure out the best next steps when it matters the most. And we connect you with the medical professionals you need who can provide care and treatment after your baby's birth. So, when it comes time for your little one to be introduced to the world, you and your doctors won’t have to wonder and worry about what’s next—you’ll know.

What We Do

Thankfully, many congenital conditions can be diagnosed during pregnancy and treatment can often begin as soon as your baby is born. But early detection and treatment are key. That's why we're here—to help parents-to-be like you plan ahead and prepare.

While you wait for your baby's birth, we:

• Help you cope with unexpected congenital conditions by providing information, guidance, and support about what to expect.
  
• Coordinate fetal testing, with diagnostic studies that reveal more detailed information than traditional fetal ultrasounds.
• Schedule consultations with any of our appropriate specialists, who can care for virtually any medical or surgical condition after delivery and talk you through your treatment options long before the big day.
  
• Assemble an expert, personalized care team that includes physicians you already have, as well as our own highly skilled and experienced Nemours specialists. We'll work with all of your doctors to make sure everyone's on the same page throughout your pregnancy and after birth.
• Give you a little hope and peace of mind in knowing that there are experts standing by who are aware of and ready to step in to help with your baby’s unique situation.

Parents often feel more comfortable when they’ve met the people who will be caring for their child, learned about support services available, and toured the places where their baby might receive care after birth.

Who Refers Patients to Us?

Moms-to-be and expectant couples often come to our program from referrals by:

• perinatologists (also sometimes called “maternal-fetal specialists” or “maternal-fetal medicine specialists”)—obstetricians who’ve had additional training in high-risk pregnancies
• obstetricians/gynecologists (also called “OB/GYNs”)—physicians with at least four additional years of training after medical school in women’s health and reproduction who can handle complicated pregnancies and perform caesarean sections (“C-sections”)

When It's Time to Deliver

Our expertise is in caring for babies and children once they're born, so we don't deliver babies (there are no OB/GYNs or perinatologists on our staff). Moms and babies are usually safest and best-served with their own doctors and hospitals that are best-equipped to take care of them during pregnancy and delivery. On the rare occasion that your baby may require intervention during or immediately after birth, arrangements can be made to deliver the baby at duPont Hospital for Children.

However, whenever possible, you can deliver at the hospital of your choice, under the care of your personal physician and with the support of your family and friends. But we make sure you and your doctors (here and elsewhere) have all of the information you need for delivery at your local hospital—and that everyone understands the recommendations for getting your baby the most efficient, highest-quality care and treatment.

If needed, our Critical Care Transport Team can safely and promptly transfer your baby by ambulance or helicopter to duPont Hospital for Children for care or surgery with the specialists you’ve been working with already.

But our care doesn’t just stop after the birth. Our team will continue comprehensive follow-up to make sure problems that may not be obvious before or even at birth are detected as soon as possible. And we’ll keep providing you care and support as long as necessary to give your baby the best chance at a healthy future.