High Risk Pregnancy Care Expanding
STPH Expands Maternal Fetal Care at Women’s Pavilion
COVINGTON – Expectant mothers in west St. Tammany have improved access to maternal fetal medicine specialists as part of St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s regional clinical partnership with Ochsner Health System.
“We are excited to add Ochsner perinatologists to the maternal fetal medicine program at our Woman’s Pavilion,” Pam Ballard, pavilion manager said. “By combining their expertise with the renowned group from Woman’s Hospital that helped us launch our clinic in 2012, we are able to deliver on the promise of world-class care close to home, even for those high-risk pregnancy patients.”
Perinatologists are maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialists, subspecialty-trained obstetricians who specialize in high-risk pregnancies to ensure healthy outcomes for mother and baby. Local obstetricians may refer patients to such specialists if they have chronic health issues or face unexpected challenges that develop during pregnancy. This specialized resource in the service district means more Northshore OBs can safely deliver their patients close to home, when they might otherwise have had to travel to New Orleans or Baton Rouge at routine intervals for care throughout the pregnancy and possibly even deliver out of market.
At the STPH MFM clinic, a typical visit includes a comprehensive fetal ultrasound evaluation to examine fetal growth and development, perinatologist’s review and patient conference to discuss progress. At the pavilion, MFM patients have the opportunity to view live feed of their ultrasound as the procedure is being performed by a certified, specialty-trained MFM ultrasound technologist.
Patients whose OBs refer them to the Woman’s Hospital MFM perinatologist group visit the clinic on Tuesdays and those referred to the Ochsner MFM perinatologist group visit on Thursdays. Appointments are made only via referral from the patient’s established OB/GYN. Schedulers can reach the clinic at (985) 773-1500 to schedule patients for clinic.
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A full-service acute care facility committed to providing world-class healthcare and the latest technology, St. Tammany Parish Hospital delivers today’s life-improving procedures with the utmost care to area residents with emphasis on wellness, preventive care and disease management close to home. STPH is a self-supporting not-for-profit community hospital; it receives no ad valorem tax funding. STPH.org