‘Opt for foetal surgeries over pregnancy termination’

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) Couples should opt for foetalsurgeries over pregnancy termination in cases of complexities,experts said here today. "The problem in our country is that we terminate pregnancyvery easily. There is a need to educate the obstetrician thatif they see a problem and cannot understand it the solutionis not necessarily to terminate the baby," said Dr Anita Kaul,senior consultant at Apollo Centre for Foetal Medicine. "Foetal surgery is a complex surgical procedure to correctabnormalities in the womb like placenta complications in twinswhich compromises life of one twin. Scientific advances in thelast 20 years have raised the hope that many pregnancycomplications are potentially detectable from as early as the12th week of gestation. These surgeries are better thantermination of the pregnancy altogether," she added. An estimated 487,000 babies are born with birth defects inIndia and out of these 720 per year are in Delhi. 3 out of 200babies are diagnosed with some form of abnormalities everyday. According to experts, issues like minimal knowledge offoetal care and the spurt of IVF clinics leading to anincrease in mono pregnancy with fatal repercussions for thefoetus were addressed. The Apollo Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary todayand conducted a series of programmes for raising awarenessregarding the health and wellness of foetuses in the country. "IVF clinics have become prevalent today and instead ofputting one egg these clinics insert several eggs. This leadsto mono pregnancy. The problem with mono pregnancy is that oneof the twins is so small that it doesn’t survive and its deathaffects the other twin severely," Kaul said. PTI APA GJSKUN