THE old saying “Prevention is better than cure” – has been revolutionised by a local family physician specialising in foetal medicine – through his proactive approach in assessing pregnancies.
Dr Siva Pillay has established a world class Early Pregnancy Assessment Centre at Netcare Cuyler Hospital.
It is one of only a few private centres of its kind in the Eastern Cape and is accredited by the Foetal Medicine Foundation and the Department of Health.
“It is critical that there is a greater focus on adopting a proactive approach to the health of a mother and her baby during pregnancy, rather than responding medically in the event of something going wrong or when complications arise during a pregnancy,” said Dr Pillay.
A healthy mother is considerably more likely to have a healthy child, with a lower risk of complications during the birthing process.
“The latest technologies and approaches in foetal and obstetric medicine are making it increasingly possible to predict possible health problems early on in a pregnancy, with a high degree of accuracy. It also makes it possible to act early to limit harmful effects or even preventing these health problems from manifesting,” said Dr Pillay.
At his Early Pregnancy Assessment Centre, he places considerable emphasis on antenatal care that encompasses preventive obstetrics to prevent, predict, detect and manage any problems and complications of pregnancy.
“We are able to screen for a wide variety of possible medical conditions and risks in the first trimester, which is up to 13.6 weeks of pregnancy. These include preterm labour risk, still birth and miscarriage risk, Down’s Syndrome (100% degree of accuracy), open and closed spina bifida (94% degree of accuracy), incompetent cervix (88% degree of accuracy), gestational diabetes risk, Edward’s Syndrome (95% degree of accuracy) and brain and heart abnormalities,” said Dr Pillay.
The Early Pregnancy Assessment Centre offers a critical service and every effort is made to make its services as accessible as possible to the pregnant women in the region by offering a full battery of screenings at minimal cost.
The Centre is equipped with a range of state-of-the-art technology including a brand new ultrasound machine, which offers exceptional image quality and enables a full morphology screening at 20 to 22 weeks, to ensure the baby is growing and developing normally.
“A proactive approach can be lifesaving. Therefore we encourage parents not to delay in monitoring their pregnancy from an early stage. After all, a pregnancy should be a happy experience for all mothers-to-be and not a stressful one,” said Dr Pillay.
The Early Pregnancy Assessment Centre also organises antenatal yoga classes and a host of activities in service of patients.
For more information contact 041 995 9117 or 041 922 0465.
