 Hello friends, my name is Dr. Pundalik Vardhika. I am the Fetal Medicine Consultant in KMC Hospital, Mangalore. I am going to give you a bird's-eye view about the role of fetal medicine in obstetrics. Fetal medicine in simple words is a branch of medicine wherein, with the help of ultrasound, we thoroughly examine the fetus and its environment and diagnose or detect any pregnancy-related complications, birth defects, and we plan a way forward to achieve optimal fetal care. The way forward can be either providing options of fetal screening, fetal interventions, fetal therapy whenever feasible, or just planning or chalking out a plan to how to follow up the pregnancy in the remaining half of the pregnancy and also discuss some of the postnatal management options or therapy which are available and where can it be done and also discuss short-term and long-term prognosis. Every pregnancy is precious and nowadays there is a trend of women conceiving at an older age or conceiving through an assisted reproductive technology such as IVF. This makes it all the more important to ensure the well-being of the fetus. Hence, as fetal medicine experts, our role is to ensure that we optimally scan the fetus and provide comprehensive fetal care and ensure the expectant couple that all is well. Ideally, all the pregnant women in their pregnancy should have a minimum of four scans. The first scan being an early pregnancy scan or an early obstetric scan which is done between 6 to 10 weeks of gestation wherein we confirm the pregnancy, the confirm the site of the pregnancy, whether it's intraiutrient, extraiutrient, confirm the number of fetuses, that is, either it's a singleton, twins, or triplets, confirm the corionicity in case of multiple gestation, confirm the size of the fetus or measure the size of the fetus, and also check for the fetal viability, that is cardiac activity. The second scan being an anti-scan which is done between 11 to 14 weeks of gestation wherein an early fetal anatomical assessment is done, followed by we look for some of the markers for chromosomal abnormalities like nuclear translucency, nasal bone, ductus venosus flow, or tricuspid regalitation. And at the end of the scan, of the first-trimester scan, we offer the patients a simple blood test called the first-trimester combined screening which has a detection rate of 85 to 90% for detecting common chromosomal problems such as Down syndrome, Edward syndrome, and Patto syndrome to name a few. Third scan being a Tifa scan. Tifa is targeted imaging for fetal anomalies. It's also called as an anomaly scan or a target scan, or sometimes it's called genetic sonogram, where which also can be clubbed with the fetal echocardiography whenever there is a high risk factor in the mother or a fetus. High risk factor in the sense mother being a known cardiac disease or a fetus. The previous baby had a cardiac abnormality and this pregnancy has to be evaluated for the same. Any cardiac problem in this baby. In Tifa scan, we do a thorough assessment of the fetus, which can pick up around 85 to 90% of the abnormalities if at all it is present. And we also check for any markers of aneuploidy in the second trimester. And if at all a patient has missed doing a first trimester combined screening in the first trimester period, we can offer them a quadruple screening which has a sensitivity of, that is detection rate of 80% to detect common aneuploidies. Last scan is a growth scan which is done between 30 to 34 weeks of gestation, wherein we see for the like or volume around the fetus, check for the presentation of the baby, check for the interval growth, and also look for some of the evolving anomalies. Whenever an abnormality is detected in any of these scans, we sit across the expectant couple and discuss and guide them regarding the postnatal management therapy or prenatal interventions or prenatal therapy available and discuss regarding the short-term and long-term prognosis. Also, we discuss the chances of recurrence of the same problem in future pregnancies. The common scenarios which we come across as fetal medicine experts are screen positive cases for common chromosomal problems such as Down syndrome and some of the birth defects which we get referral as second opinions are neural tube defects, cleft lip palate, club food or cardiac defects, etc. We also get referrals for fetal growth restriction, multiple pregnancy and its unique complications such as twin-to-twin transmission syndrome, twin-reversed arterial profusion, single-fetal demise or selective fetal growth restriction. Common fetal interventions which we do in first trimester, we do corianiculose sampling or multi-fetal reductions. In second trimester, there can be amniocentesis, fetal blood sampling, intrauterine transfusion. All in all, we as fetal medicine experts conduct a detailed scan of the fetus, diagnosed abnormalities and our motto is that every pregnancy is precious and every fetus deserves the best care possible.