Pregnancy
London Pregnancy Clinic expands to Chelsea
London Pregnancy Clinic has officially expanded its expert services to West London with the opening of a new location in Chelsea.
This new clinic will allow the team to see more patients and continue their commitment to offering high-quality care.
This expansion was driven by the increasing demand for high-quality prenatal care in West London, providing expectant mothers with greater convenience and access to advanced diagnostic services closer to home.
This marks a significant milestone in the clinic’s mission to provide expectant mothers with accessible, high-quality pregnancy care.
Miss Jess McMicking, founder of Westminster Women’s Clinic, said: “Very much looking forward to having London Pregnancy Clinic and their exceptional team in our surrounds, and most importantly, their expertise for our patients and the wider West London community.”
The clinic is located within the esteemed Westminster Women’s Clinic (WWC), a centre known for its excellence in women’s health.
This collaboration ensures that London Pregnancy Clinic can offer its renowned early pregnancy scans, viability scans, and advanced Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in a cutting-edge and welcoming environment.
Dr. Fred Ushakov, Medical Director of London Pregnancy Clinic, said: “Opening our Chelsea clinic is a fantastic step forward in making expert prenatal care more accessible to expectant mothers in West London.
“We are thrilled to bring the best NIPT options in London, ensuring that families have access to the most advanced screening technologies in a supportive environment.”
Comprehensive Services for Expectant Mothers
London Pregnancy Clinic West offers a wide range of specialist services designed to support women through early pregnancy.
Key offerings include:
Early Pregnancy Scans – Providing reassurance and vital information during the crucial first trimester, including the 10-week scan.
This scan helps assess fetal development, confirm the number of fetuses, and detect potential abnormalities early in pregnancy. It also provides reassurance to expectant parents and helps determine if further testing, such as Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), may be necessary.
Viability and Dating Scans – Confirming pregnancy progression and establishing accurate due dates.
Advanced Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) – Including PrenatalSafe and the SMART Test, offering early detection of chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome.
Utilising state-of-the-art ultrasound technology and supported by a team of experienced specialists in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the clinic ensures accurate diagnostics in a calm, professional setting.
Why This Expansion is a Game Changer for West London
With the opening of its Chelsea location, London Pregnancy Clinic makes expert prenatal care more accessible to expectant mothers in Chelsea, Fulham, Kensington, Knightsbridge, and surrounding areas.
This new clinic offers a tranquil and private setting, ensuring a comfortable experience for patients.
Located within the prestigious Westminster Women’s Clinic, it provides access to some of the most advanced ultrasound technology and prenatal screening options in the UK, making it a top choice for those seeking comprehensive pregnancy care.
By bringing its trusted services to this new location, the clinic ensures that more women can benefit from personalised, high-quality care without having to travel across the city.
Meet the West London Team
Our dedicated team in Chelsea has been carefully selected to provide expert prenatal care tailored to the needs of expectant mothers in West London.
Each specialist brings a wealth of experience in fetal medicine, obstetric ultrasound, and maternal-fetal health, ensuring that every patient receives the highest standard of care.
London Pregnancy Clinic is proud to introduce the expert team at its Chelsea location:
Dr. Fred Ushakov – Medical Director, Specialist in Fetal Medicine & Obstetric Ultrasound. With decades of experience in fetal medicine, Dr. Ushakov is internationally recognised for his expertise in advanced ultrasound techniques and early detection of fetal abnormalities.
Dr. Spyros Bakalis – Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine in West London. Dr. Bakalis brings a wealth of experience in high-risk pregnancies and fetal assessments, ensuring expectant mothers receive comprehensive and personalised care.
Ms. Shaz Khojasteh – Specialist Sonographer in Fetal Medicine, Gynaecology & Fertility. Ms. Khojasteh has extensive experience in obstetric and gynaecological ultrasound, supporting patients through every stage of pregnancy and fertility planning.
Ms. Karin Meeds – Specialist Sonographer in Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Fertility. Known for her patient-centred approach, Ms. Meeds provides expert diagnostic imaging and ensures that every scan is conducted with precision and care.
Saskia Hicks – Experienced Midwife. Saskia plays a crucial role in guiding and supporting expectant mothers through their pregnancy journey, offering reassurance and expert advice tailored to individual needs through Pouch Health, a digital health companion designed to provide expectant mothers with essential pregnancy information, support, and resources throughout their journey.
A New Era of Pregnancy Care in West London
The launch of London Pregnancy Clinic’s Chelsea location marks a significant step forward in making expert prenatal care more widely available.
With its combination of top-tier medical expertise, cutting-edge technology, and patient-centred approach, the clinic continues to set the standard for pregnancy care in London.
Expectant mothers looking for trusted, professional pregnancy support can now book appointments at the Chelsea location.
To celebrate the opening, London Pregnancy Clinic is offering exclusive early pregnancy scan packages and priority bookings for NIPT screenings, ensuring that West London families receive unparalleled care from day one.
Learn more about London Pregnancy Clinic at londonpregnancy.com
A £50m maternity consortium will bring together UK clinicians, researchers and communities to tackle the most critical gaps in maternal care.
Funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research has established the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium under the leadership of the University of Birmingham and Newcastle University.
Higher education bodies, NHS organisations, community groups and voluntary organisations from across the UK will work together through the programme.
The NIHR has committed £50m over five years to support research led by clinicians, researchers and communities across the consortium.
Professor Joht Singh Chandan, consortium co-lead for research at the University of Birmingham, said: “National attention on maternity safety and equity has never been greater, but ambition must now be matched by evidence and implementation.
“Through this consortium, we will work across the UK to understand what works, for whom and in what contexts, and to ensure that research leads to practical changes in care for the women, babies and families who need them most.”
The launch comes at a pivotal moment for UK maternity care, with growing national attention on improving safety, equity and women’s experiences of care.
The government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights the need to improve care before and between pregnancies for underserved communities.
Against that backdrop, the consortium will generate the evidence, interventions and research capacity needed to help turn national ambition into practical improvements for women, babies and families.
University of Birmingham is leading work to improve maternity care pathways across the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods.
Antenatal care covers pregnancy before labour, while intrapartum care refers to care during labour and birth.
The consortium will examine how women and families can be better supported before pregnancy and between pregnancies.
This includes improving access to advice and care that can help people prepare for pregnancy, manage existing health conditions and reduce risks before they build up.
Other research will focus on improving care during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks after birth.
This will include work on major causes of poor maternal health, such as high blood pressure, diabetes in pregnancy, obesity, perinatal mental health and complications during recovery after birth.
Professor Judith Rankin OBE, consortium co-lead for research and capacity development at Newcastle University, said: “This funding represents a critical opportunity to make the step change we need to improve outcomes for women and their babies.
“Alongside the research, the Consortium will be investing in tomorrow’s research leaders today to ensure we have the capacity to deliver on improving pregnancy outcomes, access to, and experience of, care.”
The University of Liverpool has secured £1.8m to test a device for postpartum bleeding and launch a new women’s health studio.
The PPH Butterfly is designed to help control postpartum haemorrhage, which is severe bleeding after childbirth and a leading cause of maternal death worldwide.
The funding will support research into how the device can be used in clinical practice and generate evidence to inform its wider adoption.
The university has launched the Women’s Health Innovation Studio, known as the WIN Studio, alongside the project.
The £1.8m initiative is predominantly funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which is providing £1.5m, with additional support from the university.
The PPH Butterfly project will involve a multi-centre clinical trial across the UK and a global feasibility study looking at how practical it would be to use the device in different healthcare settings.
The WIN Studio is led by Andrew Weeks, professor of international maternal health care at the University of Liverpool and a senior investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and Dr Teesta Dey, a tenure track fellow in the department of women’s and children’s health.
Dr Dey will also lead the PPH Butterfly project.
Its work will cover conditions linked to female biology, including endometriosis, menopause and pregnancy-related complications.
It will also support technologies for diseases that affect women differently or disproportionately, even when they are not usually classed as gender-specific conditions.
Dr Dey said: “Women’s health has often been marginalised within healthcare systems and innovation markets, resulting in treatments, devices and care models that fail to adequately account for women’s specific needs. WIN Studio seeks to change this status quo and reconfigure how health technologies are conceived and delivered.
“The funding from NIHR for this £1.8m project is precisely the kind of innovation the WIN Studio exists to foster: clinically urgent, women-centred, and with the potential to save lives at scale.”
The studio recently hosted an event at Liverpool Women’s University Hospital as part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.
Seven innovations are currently undergoing clinical testing through the studio, with three developed internally.
The studio will work closely with NHS University Hospitals Liverpool Group and provide clinical, regulatory and commercial support to people developing women’s health technologies.
It will also involve patients and members of the public in shaping research priorities and product development.
Its wider programme includes collaborations involving clinicians, engineers, economists, academics and policymakers.
The project team says the PPH Butterfly is a simple, low-cost device designed to control severe bleeding quickly and with minimal training.
According to the team, postpartum haemorrhage causes around 70,000 deaths globally each year, equal to about one death every seven minutes.
The device previously received £1.1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The latest £1.5m grant will support a randomised UK trial, in which participants are allocated to different treatment groups by chance, and a global feasibility assessment.
Weeks said: “In an area where women face deep health inequalities, WIN Studio has a vital role to play. By working in partnership with the NHS, local government and communities, we can ensure that research leads to real-world impact.
“Liverpool has a highly integrated ecosystem of academic, clinical and commercial expertise. By bringing these together under a single platform, the WIN Studio aims to act as a national exemplar for equitable health innovation. Transforming the way medical technologies are developed is essential to addressing gender disparities in healthcare outcomes.”
Another product supported by the university, the LifeStart Trolley, has already reached commercialisation.
The small mobile resuscitation trolley allows newborn care to be carried out at the bedside while the baby’s umbilical cord remains intact, enabling delayed cord clamping.
Delayed cord clamping means waiting before cutting the cord so blood can continue flowing from the placenta to the baby after birth.
Clinical trials conducted around 10 years ago found that life-saving care could be provided successfully at the bedside using the trolley.
It was later commercialised by Inspiration Healthcare and is now used in more than 70 UK maternity units and in 36 countries, including Norway, Italy and the US.
Type 2 diabetes diagnoses are rising twice as fast in women under 40 as in women over 40, new data shows.
Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition and can lead to complications such as heart attacks and strokes. When it develops in younger people, it can be more aggressive and have more severe and acute effects.
Diagnoses in women under 40 rose by 47 per cent between 2017/18 and 2023/24. By comparison, diagnoses rose by 22 per cent in women aged 40 to 79.
During the same period, type 2 diabetes diagnoses in men under 40 increased by 34 per cent.
Diabetes UK said it is concerned about the follow-up care offered to women who have had gestational diabetes, also known as GDM, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy and usually goes away after birth, but it raises the risk of type 2 diabetes later.
Colette Marshall, chief executive at Diabetes UK, said: “These figures should be a wake-up call. Type 2 diabetes is rising twice as fast in younger women compared to older women, and a crucial opportunity for prevention is being missed. Every diagnosis is life-changing, but when it develops in younger people, type 2 diabetes is even more aggressive.
“Pregnancy shouldn’t be a pathway to ill health. Yet despite facing a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes, too many women with GDM receive little or no follow-up care after pregnancy.
“As the Government turns its Strategy into action, support for women who have had gestational diabetes must not be overlooked.”
Last year, the NHS published the first national GDM audit for England in 2024/25, which revealed inconsistencies in follow-up care.
Only 57 per cent of women with GDM received an annual HbA1c test, which should be offered to every woman with GDM.
An HbA1c test measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months.
Only 4.5 per cent of women had received support through the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.
The report also found that 11 per cent of women developed prediabetes within five years of having GDM, while 15 per cent developed type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
Prediabetes means blood sugar levels are higher than normal and a person has a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A recent survey funded by Diabetes UK also found that more than a third of women with GDM felt abandoned by healthcare services after giving birth.
If you live in England and have had gestational diabetes, you can self-refer to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, which supports people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you live in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, you can speak to your GP about support.
Diabetes UK has written to women’s health minister Baroness Merron calling for urgent improvements to postnatal support for those diagnosed with GDM during pregnancy.
GDM affects between 10 and 20 per cent of pregnant women, but Diabetes UK said cases have long been underreported and UK-wide data on the condition has not been readily available.
The charity said poor follow-up care for women who have had GDM may be contributing to rising rates of type 2 diabetes in younger women.
It is calling for consistent postnatal follow-ups for women after GDM, more referrals to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, greater accountability for improvements in postnatal care, and action on inequalities affecting women from deprived and minority ethnic communities.
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