High -risk pregnancies come with significant challenges in terms of maternal and fetal follow-up. Specialised care is necessary to ensure that pregnancy outcomes are as optimal as possible. The Maternal Intensive Care (MIC) and obstetrics outpatient clinic of the Ghent University Hospital, as a tertiary care centre, deals with this high-risk population on a daily basis. In addition to providing high-quality clinical care, it is of great importance to strive for further improvement of this care through academic research. 

This research focuses on testing new diagnostic tools (e.g. prediction of preterm birth, new techniques of fetal echocardiograpy, etc..) and better registration and understanding of serious pregnancy complications (e.g. re-laparotomy after cesarean section, etc..).

We also try to understand how psychosocial vulnerabilities (stress, violence, female genital mutilation, psychiatric disorders, etc..) impact the outcome of the pregnancy and how we can best deal with this.