Pune district medical board permits termination of 20 24-week pregnancies in a year
Delayed or no testing has led to undetected malformations in the majority of aborted fetuses in Pune district, according to officials. The district medical board has allowed termination of pregnancies beyond 24 weeks due to substantial fetal anomalies, but doctors say the delayed detection leaves no opportunity for treatment. Tests such as ultrasounds and cardiac anomaly tests are crucial for early detection.
Early detection of malformation is tremendously improved with improvement in imaging technology. However, malformation in majority of the foetus aborted in Pune district above 24 weeks of gestation period went undetected due to delay in testing or no tests, said officials.
The Pune district medical board constituted under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act has permitted the termination of pregnancy beyond twenty-four weeks of gestation period of 20 expecting mothers due to substantial foetal anomaly.
According to doctors, the delayed detection left no scope to treat the malformations and anomalies in the foetus.
Dr Sanjaykumar Tambe, head of gynaecology department, Sassoon General Hospital(SGH) and BJ Medical College said, “The period between 19 and 23 weeks is crucial to early detection of malformation in the foetus. A structural anomaly test during the 19th week and a cardiac anomaly test during the 23rd week has to be done to check the anomalies. However, during evaluation we found either the tests were not conducted or conducted late.”
As per officials, majority of the anomalies in the foetus permitted to be aborted had cardiac, brain, skeletal and kidney anomalies. Tests were not done due to misconception despite the advance screening facilities available in the city. Timely tests like ultrasound, anencephaly test, NIPT tests (noninvasive prenatal testing test) are crucial to identify structural and cardiac anomalies in the foetus, said doctors.
Dr Chinmay Umraji, head of the foetal medicine department at SGH, said, “Even today, despite the modern technology available not many people are aware or avail them due to confusion. People think they have been delivering since ages and what is the need of advance testing. The 19-week scan can pick up 50 per cent of cardiac anomalies and 90% spine anomalies.We hope that early detection of malformation will become a new normal.”
