Gynaecology - Obstetrics

The Erasmus Hospital Obstetrics Clinic is structured as follows:  

• Prenatal consultations for low or high risk pregnancies take place at the  Erasmus Medical Center (EMC). Follow up is by a gynaecologist and/or midwife. 
• The Cocoon is a project to prepare for delivery for a low risk pregnancy attended by a midwife with no medical or epidural intervention. Consultations take place at the Cocoon. 
• The Early Pregnancy Unit (EPU) is dedicated to urgent consultations for pathologies and bleeding arising during the first three months of the pregnancy.    
• The Breech Clinic seeks to encourage and secure vaginal deliveries for babies in the breech position.  
• Two technical platforms for labour and deliveries are available at the Erasmus Hospital: 
  1. the "traditional" delivery room,
  2. the Cocoon, an intrahospital "birth gîte" managed by midwives and for low risk births only.  
• The Maternity is the postnatal hospitalisation unit. To ensure maximum rest for the newborn and his or her parents, we recommend that visits take place as soon as the baby returns home.
  Nevertheless, we authorize visits as follows, with a maximum of 4 people in the room at any one time:
  - Co-parent of the newborn (or resource person in the absence of the co-parent): H27j/7
  - Newborn's family (siblings, grandparents, uncles/aunts): 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 7 days a week
  Please note that additional charges will apply to co-parents staying overnight in shared rooms.
• The Maternal Intensive Care unit is reserved for high risk pregnancies (antenatal and/or postnatal hospitalisation).  
• Specific and multidisciplinary care pathways are provided for pregnant women with:    
  1. gestational diabetes,
  2. sickle cell disease, 
  3. cardiac disease, 
  4. obesity and/or having undergone bariatric surgery,
  5. cancer.
• Obstetrician gynaecologists at the Erasmus Hospital participate in the  NATUS programme. Multidisciplinary in its approach, this seeks to screen for and support vulnerable parenthoods, from the pregnancy project through to birth and beyond.

Ultrasounds are performed during pregnancy at the Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Foetal Medicine Ultrasound Clinic. This multidisciplinary and transversal technical platform also serves the Gynaecology Department and Fertility Clinic.

The Gynaecology Clinic of the H.U.B. Interhospital Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics is organised around several sectors of activity: 

• General gynaecology proposes medical treatment (contraception, hormone replacement therapy, etc.) and surgical treatment (polyps, fibroma, etc.) from adolescence to the menopause. This sector of activity also includes the  Early Pregnancy Unit that is dedicated to urgent consultations for pathologies of 1st quarter pregnancies.   
• The Endometriosis Clinic proposes a specific and multidisciplinary care pathway, including specialist gynaecologists, the Medical Imaging Department,   the Pain Centre, dedicated consultations in sexology and psychology and complementary medicine (shiatsu).  
• The Bleeding Clinic is a pathway of multidisciplinary care for patients showing abnormal bleeding (heavy periods, for example). In addition to a front line gynaecologist, patients can also be seen by a haematologist if necessary. 

The H.U.B Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics includes a Gynaecological Cancer Functional Unit that is concerned specifically with breast and pelvic cancers (cervix, uterus, ovaries), at the Jules Bordet Institute. The unit is also concerned with preserving fertility in the case of certain cancers, the gynaecological consequences of certain cancer treatment (e.g. vaginal dryness), pregnancies before, during and after cancer and medically assisted fertility treatment after cancer. 

The Gynaecology Clinic and the Gynaecological Cancer Functional Unit also work closely together with the Fertility Clinic and the Gynaecological, Obstetrical and Foetal Medicine Ultrasound Clinic. It is within this transverse technical platform that the ultrasounds requested for the various indications are carried out.

The two main lines of research pursued at the Gynaecological Clinic and the Gynaecological Cancer Functional Unit relate to endometriosis and gynaecological cancers (essentially breast and ovaries). A number of clinical  studies are being carried out to find new treatments, in an academic context or in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies.