A key advantage of the Norton Children’s Heart Institute Fetal Cardiology Program is that you can find out in advance if your baby will need specialized care and plan your delivery at Norton Hospital.

An echocardiogram can show:

• Blood flow through the heart
• Structures in the baby’s heart

Pregnant women are most often referred to the Fetal Cardiology Program by their obstetricians when the routine ultrasound done during pregnancy cannot visualize the heart or a suspected cardiac abnormality is seen or when certain risk factors are present.

These include:

• Abnormal heart rate or rhythm
• An issue with the baby’s other organs, such as the brain or kidneys
• Known or suspected chromosome abnormality
• Excess fluid in the baby’s neck, skin or other organs
• An issue with the umbilical cord or placenta
• Twins who share a placenta

Why choose Norton Children’s Heart Institute

No other congenital heart surgery program in Kentucky, Ohio or Southern Indiana is ranked higher by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons than the Norton Children’s Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Program.

• Norton Children’s Hospital has been a pioneer in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, performing Kentucky’s first pediatric heart transplant in 1986 and becoming the second site in the United States to perform an infant heart transplant.
• Our board-certified and fellowship-trained pediatric cardiovascular surgeons are leaders in the field as clinicians and researchers.
• More than 5,000 children a year visit Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Louisville, for advanced heart care.
• Norton Children’s Heart Institute successfully performs more than 17,500 procedures a year.
• The Society of Thoracic Surgeons ranked Norton Children’s Heart Institute among the best in the region after studying years of our patients’ outcomes and our ability to handle a range of pediatric heart conditions, including the most severe.
• Norton Children’s Heart Institute has satellite outpatient centers in Bowling Green, Frankfort, Owensboro and Paducah; 28 tele-echocardiography locations in Kentucky and Southern Indiana; and six fetal echocardiography locations across Kentucky.
• The American Board of Thoracic Surgery has certified the cardiothoracic surgeons at Norton Children’s Hospital with subspecialty certification in congenital heart surgery.
• The Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit is under construction to give our patients the most advanced care available.
• Our multidisciplinary approach to pediatric heart surgery brings together our specialists in cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, anesthesiology, cardiac critical care and other areas to create a complete care plan tailored for your child.