St George’s Hospital in Tooting creates pioneering unit to research multiple births

The world’s first hospital unit to pioneer research into multiple births and give parents the specialist help they need has been created.

St George’s Hospital in Tooting has created the Twins Trust Centre for Research and Clinical Excellence at its fetal medicine unit, to offer support to other units throughout the UK.

Parents’ support charity the Twins Trust will work with a team led by Professor Asma Khalil, consultant obstetrician, to carry out vital research, and promote good care.

The unit has cut stillbirth by 70 per cent after introducing guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

One research trial currently under way at St George’s aims to determine whether inserting a cervical cerclage can help to prolong twin pregnancies and prevent early delivery.

The procedure – also known as a cervical stitch – is a treatment for cervical weakness, when the cervix starts to shorten and open too early during a pregnancy.

Twins Trust chief executive Keith Reed said: “We’ve always had great links with the team at St George’s, and the remarkable results they have had in reducing stillbirths and better outcomes all round from multiple births shows what can be achieved when following the NICE multiple birth clinical guidance.

“It is why we launched our Maternity Engagement Quality Improvement project.

“Whilst this project has been on hold due to Covid-19, we are now starting to re-engage with units and look forward to working with them to improve antenatal care and achieve better outcomes for babies.

“The research undertaken will allow us to input into national policy initiatives to ensure the care needs of families expecting twins, triplets or more are taken into account.”

Expert clinicians at the centre will be able to provide peer-to-peer support and there will be a series of free webinars to replace the study days normally run.

The research study coordinator also trains midwives throughout the country to manage and upload their own cases. The registry provides a deeper insight into the knowledge and understanding of TTTS, which can be a devastating condition which could lead to the loss of one or more babies.