Specialised clinic for women with early pregnancy complication introduced at AKUH

Aga Khan University Hospital has introduced an Early Pregnancy Assessment Clinic (EPAC). One of its kind, the EPAC is a specialised one stop clinic that addresses any early pregnancy problems during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy often referred to as the first trimester. This enables specialists to provide urgent and sensitive care including making immediate decisions on the management options of the patients.

The clinic is beneficial to women who are less than twelve weeks pregnant and may be experiencing problems such as bleeding (could be spotting or heavy bleeding), abdominal pain such as cramps in the tummy, along the pelvic or back pain, suspected miscarriage, suspected ectopic pregnancy and follow up treatment as well as pre-conception counseling and advice. It also benefits women who have had recurrent miscarriages and are pregnant or plan to get pregnant.

The EPAC will be a one-stop service, with same day early pregnancy scans and relevant additional tests. Couples attending the clinic can expect immediate discussion of their results and timely decision making.   

Aga Khan University Hospital currently provides evidence based antenatal screening and care to expectant mothers and a modern state of the art maternal and newborn unit fully equipped with a dedicated maternity theatre, water birth facilities and a multidisciplinary team of specialists.

Newborn babies that need critical care, close monitoring and high level of supervision are attended to by neonatal paeditricians and neonatal nurses at the Neonatal High Dependency Unit (NHDU) and  Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Specific clinics are also offered for fertility and reproductive endocrinology.