The Arkansas High-Risk Pregnancy Program offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services to manage complications. It also provides several diagnostic services:

Together, high-resolution ultrasound – which uses sound waves to examine the structure and function of the fetus – and color flow Doppler – which shows blood flow distribution in the baby’s tissues – help the physician identify fetal abnormalities.

Amniocentesis employs ultrasound to guide a needle through the woman’s abdominal wall and withdraw some of the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus; these fluid samples are most commonly used for genetic (DNA and chromosome) analyses.

In percutaneous umbilical blood sampling, an ultrasound-guided needle through the mother’s stomach and into the fetal umbilical vein enables the physician to obtain blood from the baby; in intrauterine fetal transfusion, blood is given to the baby by the same means.(Both procedures are exclusive to UAMS Medical Center in the state.)

Antenatal testing surveys the fetus in nonstress and contraction-stress situations. 

UAMS Medical Center’s Labor and Delivery Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are two more important components of the Arkansas High-Risk Pregnancy Program. The Labor and Delivery Unit is equipped to monitor continuously patients’ vital statistics via a state-of-the-art computer station and to handle special cases and emergencies.

“For patients who need Cesarean sections or who develop problems during labor and delivery, there are two operating rooms and two technologically advanced, neonatal resuscitation rooms on the unit,” Dr. Berg says. “After total resuscitation, infants who are at high risk of complications remain in the resuscitation rooms until we stabilize them.  We then transfer them to the NICU.”

Through its affiliation with Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the NICU draws on the knowledge and skills of several board-certified neonatologists. The unit has superb control over noise and lighting – factors that reduce the chances of intraventricular hemorrhaging (bleeding in the brain), a common risk that premature babies face. The NICU also contains the most up-to-date mechanical ventilation equipment.

 “At birth, premature infants usually can’t breathe on their own,” according to Dr. Berg.  “Our high-frequency ventilators that breathe up to 900 times per minute – compared to 60 to 80 times per minute for conventional ventilators – help these tiny babies survive.”

Once premature and seriously ill infants are well enough to go home, the NICU’s two reacquaintance rooms make the transition from hospital to home easier. These rooms allow parents to spend the night with their babies and receive instruction in caring for them. Training includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) – an important skill, especially since premature infants have a higher risk of developing heart problems and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

In the University HealthSystem Consortium’s recent neonatal study of 30 U.S. academic medical centers, the NICU at UAMS Medical Center was named as a “Better Performer.”  The study involved newborns under 2 pounds, 3 ounces, who had been admitted to the NICU due to extreme prematurity or other pre-term diagnostic conditions (such as pulmonary, neurological and gastrointestinal complications). The study looked at several factors, including the medical and nursing management of the infants and the outcomes of that care.  

Carolyn M. Riggan

Links on This Page

New High-risk OB: http://www.uams.edu/today/112901/lowery.htm
Program Helps: http://www.uams.edu/today/051701/infertility.htm
UAMS Helps: http://www.uams.edu/today/032901/telemed.htm
UAMS Medical Center: http://www.uams.edu/medcenter/
Arkansas Children’s Hospital: http://www.ach.uams.edu/