A Dubai hospital has set up a unit devoted to high-risk pregnancies, in an attempt to tackle problems such as birth defects and foetal illness. Dr George Michailidis, the head of the new Foetal and Maternal Medicine Unit at the American Hospital of Dubai, said: "Changes in lifestyle and culture - as well as developments in assisted reproductive techniques - had led to more mothers deferring their pregnancies until their late 30s or even early 40s.
"This in turn has resulted in an amplification of medical problems in pregnancy and complications associated with advanced maternal age." The unit will offer new screening tests able to detect 95 per cent of Down syndrome cases, and available to women over the age of 35, who are advised not to undergo traditional tests, such as amniocentesis. The modern equipment gets over this by a combination of ultrasound and blood tests.
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