Overview
Welcome to the Fetal Medicine Unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. We provide a high level of care for women from the North Bristol area with Fetal complications in pregnancy, including some of the smallest and earliest babies, and provide highly specialist care for women with placental abnormalities from around the South West.
Most pregnancies result in the birth of a healthy baby, but for some pregnant women, developments happen during their pregnancy that need specialist care.
What We Offer
We are the Fetal medicine service for the largest NHS Trust in the South West of England, with a full complement of adult specialties and a tertiary-level neonatal intensive care unit. We provide a broad range of fetal medicine services, and are the regional centre for the care of women with Placenta Accreta Spectrum Disease (PASD).
We offer:
- Prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities
- Prenatal diagnosis of high risk screening results
- Pre and postnatal counselling for complicated pregnancies
- Assessment and management of structural problems of the placenta (accreta)
- Care of multiple pregnancies
- Tertiary management of poor fetal growth and placental insufficiency
- In utero management of certain fetal anomalies
We work closely with partners from allied specialties who may be involved in your care including paediatric cardiology, clinical genetics and paediatric neurology/neurosurgery, urology, vascular surgery, anaesthetics and level 3 neonatology.
Some women may be referred to our partners in St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol, or University College Hospital, London, for in-utero treatment of complications arising in some twin pregnancies.
- We are an active research unit. We supervise clinicians undertaking postgraduate degrees and our unit produces high quality research in conjunction with the University of Bristol in the following areas: a) emergencies in childbirth b) assisted vaginal birth; c) renal disease in pregnancy; d) infertility and reproductive medicine
Meet the team
Dr Simon Grant
Dr Simon Grant trained in Obstetrics & Gynaecology in the South-West of England & in Auckland, before research in Southampton & then training in Maternal & Fetal Medicine at Birmingham Women’s Hospital.
He was a Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the Royal Cornwall Hospital as Labour Ward/Maternal Medicine lead from 2000, before moving to Southmead Hospital Bristol in 2005, as lead for Fetal Medicine & Obstetric Ultrasound. He also has a major interest in obstetric emergency training.
Mr Sherif Abdel-Fattah
Mr Sherif Abdel-Fattah completed his MD thesis in Glasgow in 1994, undertook fetal medicine training in Bristol. He was Consultant at St Michael’s hospital in Bristol from 2002 before moving to Southmead Hospital in April 2008. Sherif Abdel-Fattah holds several national positions. He sits on the RCOG Council representing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and has been scientific editor of the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (BJOG) since 2010. He is a member of the RCOG Global Health Board, member of the RCOG Examination and Assessment Committee and is a Part 3 MRCOG examiner. He was the RCOG Medical Training Initiative Officer, the scheme responsible for organising and supervising training for non-EU doctors in the UK, and served on the Part 2 MRCOG single best answer (SBA) examination committee, Part 2 MRCOG OSCE examination committee and the DRCOG committee.
Dr Stephen O’Brien
Dr Stephen O’Brien is a Consultant Obstetrician with an interest in Fetal Medicine. He completed his specialist training in the West of England, including a PhD in operative vaginal birth at the University of Bristol.
His interests include the diagnosis and management of fetal abnormalities, women at risk of preterm birth and operative vaginal birth. He is the national co-ordinator for training in operative vaginal birth for the RCOG.
Fetal Medicine Midwives
We have dedicated specialist midwives skilled in fetal medicine:
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Julie Wormwell – Fetal Medicine Lead Midwife
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Zoe Dorgan – Fetal Medicine Lead Midwife
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Marcia Salter – FMU Midwife
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Rebecca Partridge – FMU Midwife
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Victoria Guzman – FMU Midwife & Preterm birth prevention lead Midwife
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Olivia Rigby – FMU Midwife
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Sarah Eagle – FMU Midwife
They can talk you through your scan results and implications and can be contacted on 0117 4146928
The team are supported by Administration staff Abigail Gasson & Kim Massa and Maternity Support Workers, Annalise Brady, Deb Lamb and Becky Welch.
Screening Midwives
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Aimee Yendle, Screening Co-ordinator
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Leanne Renhard, Screening Co-ordinator & Screening Midwife
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Sophie Campbell, Screening Midwife
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Georgina Rainey, Screening Midwife
Antenatal Screening contact: annbscreening@nbt.nhs.uk / 0117 414 6739
FMU & Screening Matron – Bonny Heatherington
Last Updated: 07/08/2024
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