MEDICINA DELLA VITA PRENATALE

During the past 30 years, new technology has been introduced to assess the fetus antepartum, including electronic fetal monitoring, sonography, and amniocentesis, with the fetus emerging as a patient in utero. Prevention of morbidity as well as mortality is now the goal. This has made the task of the prenatal clinic more complex, because mother and fetus now require an increasingly sophisticated level of care. At the same time, pregnancy is basically a physiologic process, and the normal pregnant patient may not benefit from application of advanced technology.

Prenatal care is provided at a variety of sites, ranging from the private office, to the public health and county hospital clinics, to the patient’s home. Obstetricians must optimize their efforts by resourceful use of other professionals and support groups, including nutritionists, childbirth educators, public health nurses, nurse practitioners, family physicians, nurse midwives, and specialty medical consultants. Most pregnant women are healthy, with normal pregnancies, and can be followed by an obstetric team including nurses, nurse practitioners, and nurse-midwives, with an obstetrician available for consultation. These women can be followed by practitioners who have adequate time to spend on patient education and parenting preparation, whereas physicians can appropriately concentrate on complicated problems requiring their medical skills. This also provides for improved continuity of care, which is recognized as extremely important for patient satisfaction. (Gabbe 2007).

Il professor Claudio Giorlandino dirige il centro di eccellenza di Medicina Materno-fetale presso Artemisia Main Center Roma.

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