
On World Health Day 2025, we asked Liverpool Fetal Medicine & Surgery Society for their take on this year’s theme of ‘Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures’, which encourages governments and the healthcare sector to intensify actions to eliminate preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Society President Saloma Gomez tells us about the aims and objective behind the student society and her hopes for raising awareness and ultimately widening access to quality care before, during and after birth.
Although most pregnancies progress without any complications, some may need specialist input from fetal medicine teams that are made up of specialist doctors and midwives. LFMSS aims to bring students into contact with this exciting subspecialty through a combination of teaching sessions, networking opportunities and research updates.
Over the past couple of years, our society has:
- Hosted talks by leading consultants in the field
- Held student-led teaching sessions for medical students
- Held fundraising events for the Liverpool Women's Hospital
- Volunteered at the 2024 British Maternal & Fetal Medicine Society annual meeting in Liverpool
- Hosted our first ever conference!
We hosted the first ever Liverpool Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society on 22nd March, bringing together students from all years with an interest in obstetrics and fetal medicine.
The conference featured talks by renowned consultants in the field of Fetal Medicine, and students had the opportunity to gain insights into the subspecialty as well as learn more about the training pathways and requirements for the job.
Dr Devender Roberts delivered an insightful talk introducing the subspecialty to medical students, and Dr Kate Navaratnam spoke about the very relevant topic of pregnancy terminations and the legislation surrounding this. Finally, Dr Karl McPherson delivered a thought-provoking talk about biases and how they can affect the decision-making processes that happen in medicine every day.
The event also provided an opportunity for students to share their research, with students from Liverpool, Manchester, and Buckingham presenting.
We were incredibly proud to host the university’s first ever fetal medicine conference!
For a new society in a pretty niche field, pulling this off seemed like a very long shot at the start of this year.
We could not have accomplished this without the hard work and dedication of all our committee members, and of course our speakers who generously donated their time and effort to help make this event possible.
Current estimates state that almost 300,000 women die due to pregnancy and childbirth each year, while around 2 million babies are stillborn. Our hope is that this World Health Day, awareness is spread regarding the need for women and babies worldwide to have access to high quality healthcare before, during, and after pregnancy and birth.
Discover more
- Interested in a career where you can change lives before they even begin? Connect with Liverpool Fetal Medicine & Surgery Society.
- Learn more about WHO’s World Health Day, whose theme this year is Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures.