The Fetal Treatment Center at UCSF Children's Hospital is a world leader in diagnosing and treating birth defects before delivery. Most birth defects are best managed after the child is born, but an increasing number of conditions can be corrected before birth to prevent devastating consequences.

Under the direction of Dr. Michael Harrison, UCSF was the first in the world to successfully perform open fetal surgery in 1981. Currently, we have more experience with fetal surgery and endoscopic fetal intervention — less invasive interventions that allow us to avoid making an incision in the uterus — than any other institution worldwide.

We've partnered with the UCSF Pediatric Heart Center to create the Fetal Cardiovascular Program, which performs sophisticated imaging as early as the late first trimester to assess and manage fetal and pediatric heart conditions.

For more information, please visit the Fetal Treatment Center Web site.