Kidney disease in pregnancy (obstetric nephrology)

We run a large, specialist service for women with kidney diseases who want to become pregnant, or who are pregnant.

We are involved in national and international research, and also in developing the UK clinical practice guidelines in this area of medicine.

What We Offer

Prepregnancy counselling clinic

Having kidney disease can affect pregnancy and make it higher risk for both mother and baby. Being pregnant can also affect kidney function. Some of the drugs that patients with kidney problems need to take may not be safe in pregnancy, and may need to be replaced with suitable alternatives. However, with careful planning, many women with kidney diseases go on to have successful pregnancies and healthy babies.

Our prepregnancy counselling clinic runs on a monthly basis on a Thursday afternoon. We see women (along with their partners) with any type of kidney disease – including those on renal replacement therapies (on dialysis or with a transplant) – before they become pregnant, to discuss the risks and how to minimise them to give the best chance of a positive outcome.

Renal antenatal clinic

When women with kidney disease go on to become pregnant, both mother and baby need extra monitoring compared to women with no medical problems. This is to look out for and treat any complications that may arise, and may include extra blood and urine tests, blood pressure monitoring, and scans of your baby.

Our renal antenatal clinic is multidisciplinary and so you will be seen by specialist midwives, obstetricians, obstetric physicians and nephrologists (sometimes all in the same room!). It runs once a month on a Tuesday morning. This clinic is in addition to the standard midwife care that all women should receive during pregnancy.