Seattle Children’s Fetal Center
Contact the Fetal Center
Care you can trust from the most comprehensive fetal center in the region
Finding out about a medical problem during pregnancy can be scary and overwhelming. At Seattle Children’s Fetal Center, our entire team is here for you. We’ll care for both you and your developing baby every step of the way.
From expert diagnosis and clear, compassionate guidance to advanced treatment options, we provide complete care for fetal health concerns. Our providers work closely with the rest of your care team to support your family from the beginning and for the long term.
Why Choose Us
Why choose Seattle Children's Fetal Center for care?
- Experienced, high-volume center: Our Fetal Center team has cared for thousands of families facing medical issues during pregnancy. The doctors who lead the center have over 100 years of combined experience with fetal surgery. Studies show that outcomes tend to be better at centers such as ours that treat many babies with conditions like congenital heart disease (CHD), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) or twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS).
- Care custom-made for your family: We will bring all of your team members together to take care of you and your baby. We take the time to explain your child’s condition and answer all your questions. Together, we then build a care plan for you and your child, including treatment before birth if needed.
- Here when you need us: We have specialists available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for conditions that need care right away. For urgent health concerns, we typically speak with you by telephone the same day you or your referring doctor contacts us.
- Reassuring results for families: The best care begins with accurate diagnosis. Our providers excel at identifying fetal health concerns — with tools like , , (magnetic resonance imaging) and — so you get answers quickly. For maternal-fetal intervention and surgery, our results are among the best in the country, often well above national averages.
- Warm, compassionate support: Along with our technical expertise, everyone at the Fetal Center stands ready to offer you our wholehearted support. We’ve walked alongside many families as they received an unexpected diagnosis, learned about their care options and decided on next steps. Support is an essential piece of how we serve you. We help you know what to expect.
On the scariest day of our lives, Seattle Children’s provided us with the hope and confidence we needed to keep going.
— Holly and Justin, whose son Emmett was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia
Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
If your baby has a CDH, the dedicated CDH team in our Fetal Center will monitor your baby’s health during pregnancy, do tests to tell how severe the CDH is and help you prepare for what lies ahead.
We’ll work with your birth hospital to plan for a safe delivery and the special care your baby will need at birth and arrange your baby’s safe transfer to Seattle Children’s. We have a highly skilled transport team and Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the highest level of care. Seattle Children’s CDH Program will help keep your child healthy all through childhood.
Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome
In identical twins, each baby typically has its own vessels that carry blood and nutrients from the placenta to the baby and back to the placenta again. In TTTS, abnormal vessels connect the babies’ circulation, so 1 twin gets too little blood while their sibling gets too much.
Our experienced doctors offer a range of treatment options for TTTS based on your babies’ situation, including careful monitoring and fetoscopic laser ablation to stop blood flow from 1 baby to the other. In 95% of procedures done at Seattle Children’s, 1 or both twins survive.
Fetal Heart Disease
The Fetal Center diagnoses many types of heart conditions before birth, such as single-ventricle defects, tetralogy of Fallot, transposition of the great arteries, arrhythmia and others. Our team includes cardiologists who specialize in fetal cardiac diagnosis and care, cardiothoracic surgeons, a and other specialists to care for you when you are pregnant if your developing baby has a known or suspected heart problem.
Seattle Children’s Heart Center has the most experienced pediatric heart specialists, including a dedicated single ventricle team, and the PNW’s only heart transplant program.
Spina Bifida
vary greatly. Some cause few, if any, problems. The most severe form, myelomeningocele, may affect movement, bowel and bladder control, and learning. If doctors detect spina bifida in your developing baby, our Fetal Center team will assess your baby’s health, talk with you about surgery before birth and help plan for your baby’s delivery, immediate care after birth and transfer to Seattle Children’s.
Surgery to repair your baby’s spinal cord, if needed, is just the first step in their treatment. Seattle Children’s Spina Bifida Program provides coordinated care from birth through age 21.
Urinary and Kidney Conditions
The Fetal Center team works with experts in Nephrology and Urology to care for babies with conditions that affect the kidneys or the system that makes, stores and drains pee (urine), such as lower urinary tract obstruction. If your baby’s urinary tract is blocked during pregnancy, their bladder can become too full, and the amniotic fluid around your baby can dry up, causing further health concerns.
We offer options for treating the blockage either before or after birth. We also plan and provide other care your baby may need after they are born for problems linked to the blockage. U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked our Urology Program among the top pediatric urology programs in the country.
Conditions We Treat
We regularly help families whose developing baby has a fetal diagnosis, including those with rare conditions that many doctors never see. Here are some of the many conditions we diagnose and treat:
Abdominal wall defects, including:
- (prune belly syndrome)
- Gastroschisis
- Omphalocele
Conditions in monochorionic twins or triplets, including:
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH)
Fetal heart disease, including:
- Arrhythmias, such as , supraventricular tachycardia and (atrioventricular block)
- and other cardiac tumors
- Fetal heart failure
- Septal defects
- Single-ventricle defects
- Valve defects
Lung, chest or airway problems, including:
- Congenital lung malformations, such as , and (BPS)
- , including
Neural tube defects, including:
Renal (kidney) and urologic abnormalities, including:
Fetal Center Treatments and Services
You’ll receive collaborative, well-coordinated care through Seattle Children’s Fetal Center, including leading-edge diagnostic tests and highly specialized treatments. We’re also here to provide information, guidance and emotional support so you understand your baby’s condition and can make informed choices for your family. We customize care to meet your specific needs and help you plan for what's to come, from diagnosis to delivery and beyond.
Tour Seattle Children's Fetal Center
Seattle Children's Fetal Center provides holistic, compassionate care for you and your baby every step of the way. Our expanding state-of-the-art facilities combine comfortable, calm spaces with advanced technology to provide the best care possible. Take a look inside our Fetal Center in this short video.
Meet Your Fetal Center Team
Our providers are nationally recognized experts in fetal diagnosis, intervention and surgery. All of us, from maternal-fetal medicine doctors to surgeons to sonographers, work together as a team to take the very best care of your family starting the moment you need us.
With a wide range of pediatric specialists, like , surgeons, , and many others, Seattle Children’s offers comprehensive ongoing care for your child, if you need us, through young adulthood.
Leadership
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Executive Director, Fetal Center; Division Head of Fetal Surgery
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Medical Director, Fetal Center
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Surgical Director, Fetal Center
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Division Head of Maternal Fetal Medicine; Director, Women’s Services
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Director, Fetal Neonatology
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Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine
Cooper’s journey with CDH
Diagnosed before birth with congenital diaphragmatic hernia and a rare fluid condition, Cooper faced incredible odds. He underwent a lifesaving procedure at Seattle Children’s before he was even born and then an intense surgery to repair his diaphragm and reposition his organs when he was 2 weeks old. Cooper recently celebrated his first birthday with a boxing-themed party to honor his amazing fight.
Lake and Crew overcome TTTS
Thirteen weeks into pregnancy, Kailee and Nick learned 1 of their identical twins wasn’t getting as much blood and nutrition as the other due to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. To protect both boys’ lives, doctors at Seattle Children’s used fetoscopic surgery (laser ablation) to even out the blood flow between Lake and Crew. On their second birthdays, the thriving toddlers celebrated with cupcakes.
Getting Care at the Fetal Center
Contact Us
Contact the Fetal Center at 206-987-5629 for an appointment, a second opinion or more information, or email us.