Welcome to the Vasa Praevia site
About our charity – Vasa Praevia Raising Awareness
Campaigning to SAVE BABIES LIVES. Campaigning to stop THE MOST AVOIDABLE FORM OF STILLBIRTH.
We are a UK registered charity, set up because every year in the UK this obstetric condition will affect approximately 555 pregnancies (more than one per day). In the main these cases will go undiagnosed until birth and, sadly, in most cases, results in the death or severe injury of an otherwise healthy baby.
However, this need not happen.
We can prevent this.
We call upon our Government to prevent this.
If the condition is diagnosed, antenatally by ultrasound, the survival rate is almost 100%. Antenatal diagnosis and awareness of this condition (amongst families, and medical professionals), is key to prevention of these unnecessary deaths and unecessary injury and trauma.
Detection at the mid-trimester scan allows safe management and planned c-section before those vessels are compromised.
Our Objective (in brief)
Our charity seeks to raise awareness about Vasa Praevia: the condition, risk factors, warning signs, diagnosis and treatment, and to bring about the introduction of clinical protocols in the UK for the diagnosis and treatment of Vasa Praevia, and in doing so, to save little lives. Please see the ‘Our Charity’ tab or fuller breakdown of our Charity and the objectives.
Learn more about Vasa Praevia
Please click on the ‘What is Vasa Praevia’ tab and sub-tabs above to learn more about the different types of Vasa Praevia, occurrence rates, warning signs and symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, and about how colour doppler ultrasound can be used to make the life-saving diagnosis, and to learn about management of the condition.
Learn more about the Expert Evidence
The scientific evidence base for screening is clear. You will also find on our webpage (under ‘The Experts’ and under ‘Further Reading’ tabs) a Booklet summarising the latest studies and papers, and for those wanting to read each in full direct links to each of those papers.
Please also take a look at our Social Media pages where you will now also find copies our latest information booklets and reels (making the latest research accessible to all).
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Crucial Information for anyone pregnant
Expecting parents should be able to rely upon the NHS to screen for conditions which place their baby’s life at risk. Unfortunately however the NHS does not, currently, screen for Vasa Praevia. Only a few Trust have an active screening programme.
Therefore it is important to specifically ask your treating team to screen for Vasa Praevia. These questions will prompt your sonographer to look for Vasa Praevia itself, and the associated risk factors during your scan. Please take this list of questions to your scan, and ensure you are provided with answers to each.
- Placental position – Do I have a low lying placenta, is it near the cervix?
- Placental lobes- Do I have any additional placental lobes?
- Cord insertion point – Where do the umbilical vessels insert into the placenta? Is there any evidence of velamentous or marginal cord insertion?
- Are all the blood vessels protected?
- Can Vasa Praevia be ruled out?
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The Petition
If you feel that women in the UK would benefit from the introduction of routine screening for Vasa Praevia in the NHS please sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/royal-college-of-obsetricians-and-gynaecologists-save-150-babies-per-year-by-routine-screening-for-vasa-praevia
