Over 25% of women miss out on ultrasound service

SUBSTANTIAL investment is urgently needed in our maternity services after it emerged that a quarter of pregnant women are still not offered routine foetal anomaly ultrasounds.

Medics have found a strong disparity in ultrasound services to pregnant women at the country’s 19 maternity units, with foetal anomaly ultrasounds not offered in 26% of the country’s maternity units, a new paper in the current edition of the Irish Medical Journal reported.

The authors of the study, Maternity Ultrasound in the Republic of Ireland 2016: A Review, state that the foetal anomaly ultrasound is a routine part of antenatal care in other countries and argue that their study ‘highlights the lack of development in Irish maternity ultrasound services over the last decade’.

The authors state: ‘If we are serious about equity of care and access to specialist services for all Irish women, regardless of geographical location or financial means, there must now be substantial investment by healthcare policymakers.’ The study found that foetal anomaly ultrasounds are not offered in five of the 19 units, selectively offered to some expectant mothers in seven units and offered to all women in the seven remaining units.

The authors also found that the number of women not being offered routine first trimester ultrasonography stands at 26% ‘and this is unacceptably high’.

The study found that, overall, 41,700 – or 64% – of expectant mothers received a foetal anomaly ultrasound nationally in 2016.

The authors are based at The Irish Centre for Foetal and Neonatal Translational Research, University College Cork; the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Cork and Cork University Maternity Hospital.

They state their findings reflect those of two previous ultrasound studies in 2007 and 2012 and confirm that there has been no expansion in Irish maternity ultrasound services in the last decade.

Highlighting the importance of foetal anomaly scans, the authors state: ‘If a foetal anomaly is detected, planned delivery of the infant at the right time and in the correct place can be facilitated, thus enabling rapid access to appropriate neonatal intensive care which may ultimately reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality.’

The medics state that diagnosis can also provide adequate time to psychologically prepare parents for the challenges of the pregnancy and postnatal period.

They add further that ‘a timely diagnosis of a lethal foetal anomaly can allow [parents] time to adjust and make memories with their infant’.

They state: ‘In certain jurisdictions, the detection of a lethal foetal anomaly can provide parents with the option to continue with the pregnancy or to terminate.’

The authors note: ‘Without recognition of the deficit that exists in both the numbers of suitably qualified sonographers as well as in provision of facilities and equipment, we will be unable to meet one of the fundamental aims of the 2016 National Maternity Strategy – equal access to standardised ultrasound services to every pregnant woman in Ireland.’ news@dailymail.ie