More women with complex pregnancies in Louisville or Southern Indiana entrust Norton Children’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine with their care than any other provider. Our specialists are committed to providing quality, compassionate, evidence-based care to women with high-risk pregnancies and their babies.

Through the Norton Children’s Perinatal Center, our board-certified, specialty-trained maternal-fetal medicine perinatologists and neonatologists work closely with you to create a customized treatment plan.

Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital is home to a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and Norton Children’s Hospital’s NICU is rated Level IV — representing the most sophisticated level of newborn care. With 101 beds, the Norton Children’s Hospital NICU is one of the largest in the country.

Norton Children’s Perinatal Center

At the Norton Children’s Perinatal Center, we provide collaborative care from the beginning of a high-risk pregnancy diagnosis to the follow-up care of a newborn, all at the same location.

Our maternal-fetal medicine specialists, obstetricians, neonatologists, nurse practitioners, sonographers and diabetes educators practice in the same offices. That means many women with high-risk pregnancies — especially those who travel hundreds of miles for care — can consolidate their appointments.

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Women with conditions such as diabetes or substance use disorder also can get the specialized care they and their babies need in one place.

Norton Children’s Perinatal Center has added and upgraded ultrasound equipment to provide superior image quality and color along with unique fetal heart imaging tools.

The neonatology follow-up center is committed to providing support and care for you and your baby. Our team has medical and developmental specialists including neonatologists, nurse practitioners and occupational therapists. When we identify medical and developmental needs as early as possible, we can provide the services and family support needed. We work with your pediatrician and other community providers to establish services and care for your family. We carefully and thoroughly evaluate your baby’s growth, nutrition and developmental needs to determine the best plan of care.

Norton Children’s Perinatal Center is located on the Norton Healthcare – St. Matthews campus. Find our maternal-fetal medicine locations.

Our network of referral centers across the region provides convenient access to the Norton Children’s Perinatal Center team. Your physician will refer you to the Norton Children’s Perinatal Center if you need the extra level of care.

When You May Need a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist

Women may need the extra care of the Norton Children’s Perinatal Center before or during their pregnancy for a variety of reasons, including:

• Preconception counseling
• Genetic disorders
• Medical complications
• A history of birth defects
• Diabetes or other endocrine disorders
• Diagnostic or therapeutic procedures during pregnancy
• First-trimester screening for Down syndrome
• Comprehensive ultrasound
• Chorionic villus sampling
• Amniocentesis, fetal transfusion or treatment
• Fetal echocardiography
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Preeclampsia (toxemia)
• Kidney or gastrointestinal disease
• Infectious diseases
• Healthy women whose pregnancy is at increased risk
• Substance use disorder
• Abnormal maternal serum screening
• Multiple gestations — twins, triplets or more
• Recurrent preterm labor and delivery
• Premature rupture of membranes (water breaking early)
• Recurrent pregnancy loss
• Suspected fetal growth restriction (baby not growing normally)

Where to Receive Maternal-Fetal Medicine Care

Norton Children’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine has practices on the Norton Healthcare downtown campus and the Norton Healthcare – St. Matthews campus in Louisville, as well as outreach clinics in Bowling Green, Kentucky; Elizabethtown, Kentucky; and Paducah, Kentucky. Our outreach clinics enable women with complicated pregnancies to receive specialized care without always traveling to Louisville. Outreach clinics are staffed by our maternal-fetal medicine specialists and highly trained sonographers who provide the same level of care as our Louisville offices.

Our maternal-fetal medicine specialists work in partnership with your primary physician whenever possible, so you can continue your relationship with the provider you know best while receiving the specialized care you need throughout your pregnancy and delivery.

Learn More About Your Complex Pregnancy

Norton Women’s Care offers additional free classes related to childbirth and being a new parent.

Collaborating With the UofL School of Medicine for Your Care

Norton Children’s providers offer compassionate, high-quality care for you and your baby. These doctors are professors and active researchers helping to advance medical care in the 21st century with clinical research and education. Norton Children’s Hospital serves as the primary pediatric teaching facility for the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

What to Expect from Norton Women’s Care

More mothers in Louisville and Southern Indiana choose to deliver their babies at Norton Hospital or Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital than with any other hospital system in the area.

We deliver more than 8,000 babies a year. We’re close to you with more than 90 providers at more than 25 locations around Louisville and Southern Indiana. Choosing Norton Women’s Care gives you many options for how delivery day could go — all with the confidence of knowing that our obstetrics and pediatric specialists are there to help. With Norton Women’s Care you’ll find:

• The birth experience you want. You can choose natural childbirth, a midwife, labor tub, nitrous oxide and other birthing options. We’ll recommend a C-section (cesarean section) or induced labor only if it’s medically necessary.
• Preparation. Our specialists offer the support you need, including free Lamaze and other childbirth classes, new parent classes, breastfeeding support, child safety classes and more.
• Confidence and quality in care. Norton Women’s Care has been recognized as High Performing — the highest rating available — for maternity care with fewer complications and C-sections, plus breastfeeding support and other benefits.
• The highest level (Level IV) neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Louisville and Southern Indiana at Norton Children’s Hospital, and a sophisticated Level III NICU at Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital.
• Around-the-clock OB/GYN care at Norton Hospital and Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital emergency departments.
• Board-certified maternal-fetal medicine specialists who can help guide you through a high-risk pregnancy, from preexisting diabetes to a fetal echocardiogram to diagnose a congenital heart defect before a baby is born.
• Convenient access to your medical record. Communicate with your health care provider, get lab results, renew prescriptions and more through your free MyNortonChart account.