Dr. Michael Harrison didn't set out to invent a field of medicine — he set out to save one baby. In this episode of The Fetal Frontline, host Kris Rimbos sits down with the surgeon widely known as the Father of Fetal Surgery for a wide-ranging conversation about how operating on a patient before birth went from unthinkable to standard of care.

Harrison traces the whole arc: the newborn with a diaphragmatic hernia whose death revealed the real problem began before birth; choosing UCSF — an "up-and-coming" school unbound by tradition, where a radical idea could actually be pursued; answering skeptics with roughly 1,500 fetal-lamb operations instead of argument; and the "marriage of disciplines" — surgery, obstetrics, perinatology, neonatology — that turned an experiment into a specialty. He reflects on the ethics of caring for two patients at once, the mind-bending first open fetal surgeries, and Michael Skinner, the first baby to survive one, whose family named him after his surgeon. He explains how spina bifida reframed the goal from saving a life to protecting a way of life, how necessity drove the device work of his "D-VICE squad," and what Yale crew taught him about endurance. Finally, he looks ahead — to genetics, metabolic disease, and AI — and shares the legacy he hopes endures: not the answers, but the constant questioning. Along the way, he names the achievement he's proudest of: his family.

In this episode:

- The single case that launched a field — and the insight that the problem was pulmonary, before birth

- Why it had to be UCSF, the "Wild West" where a radical idea could be tried

- Answering the skeptics with data: ~1,500 fetal-lamb operations

- A marriage of disciplines, NAFTNet & IFMSS, and the ethics of the unborn patient

- Michael Skinner, spina bifida, and the devices necessity demanded

- Mentoring the next generation, the future of genetics & AI, and a life kept well-ordered

Chapters:

- 0:00 — Welcome: the Father of Fetal Surgery

- 1:27 — A doctor like his father

- 2:41 — The case that changed everything

- 5:37 — UCSF and the "Wild West"

- 7:12 — Answering the skeptics

- 9:25 — A marriage of disciplines

- 11:19 — Building a global network (NAFTNet & IFMSS)

- 12:37 — Ethics of the unborn patient

- 13:33 — Innovation and patient safety

- 16:27 — Inside the first fetal surgery

- 17:40 — Michael Skinner: living proof

- 18:37 — Spina bifida and quality of life

- 19:46 — Necessity drives innovation (the D-VICE squad)

- 22:55 — Rowing, grit, and endurance

- 24:30 — Mentoring the next generation

- 27:41 — The future: genetics & AI

- 29:26 — Legacy: keep questioning

- 31:12 — Family, and a life well-ordered

Guest: Dr. Michael Harrison, MD — pediatric and fetal surgeon; founder of the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center, the world's first.

Host: Kris Rimbos — host of The Fetal Frontline and an FTNN board member.

Learn more about the Fetal Therapy Nurse Network at fetaltherapynursenetwork.org, and subscribe to The Fetal Frontline wherever you listen.

Social work is one of fetal care's most vital — and least understood — roles. In this episode of The Fetal Frontline, host Kris Rimbos sits down with Beth Moorhouse, a social worker specializing in fetal and perinatal care, for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to support families through the most uncertain moments of a pregnancy.

Beth explains how she builds trust fast with families who arrive in crisis, how she helps parents process life-changing news step by step, and how she advocates for access — transportation, lodging, FMLA, insurance, and the social determinants that shape every outcome. She unpacks culturally sensitive, patient-centered care, the team "huddle" that delivers one compassionate message, and the unique, personal lens social work brings to the interdisciplinary table. She also opens up about the hardest parts of the work: supporting families through impossible decisions without ever steering them, giving voice to grief, gathering mementos like a heartbeat bear, perinatal mental health, and the support group she helped launch with Postpartum Support International — closing on how she cares for herself, the misconception she'd most like to correct, and why this work matters.

In this episode:

- What a fetal care social worker actually does — counseling, advocacy, care coordination, grief support

- Building rapport in minutes, and meeting families where they are

- Advocacy and equity: removing the barriers between families and care

- The huddle, the team, and social work's personal lens

- Impossible decisions, held with compassion and zero judgment

- Grief, mementos, perinatal mental health, and caring for the whole family

Chapters:

- 0:00 — The role of social work in fetal care

- 0:54 — From maternal-child care to the fetal frontier

- 4:12 — What surprised her most

- 5:29 — Building trust fast: the assessment

- 7:32 — Processing hard news & impossible decisions

- 10:54 — Advocacy: giving families a voice

- 13:31 — Barriers, equity & social determinants

- 17:04 — Culturally sensitive, patient-centered care

- 19:52 — The team, the huddle & social work's lens

- 28:30 — Supporting decisions without steering them

- 34:51 — Grief, loss & gathering mementos

- 39:59 — Support groups & perinatal mental health

- 45:12 — Coping, self-care & the whole family

- 50:42 — Reflections: why this work matters

Guest: Beth Moorhouse, MSW, LCSW, PMH-C — social worker specializing in fetal & perinatal care.

Host: Kris Rimbos — host of The Fetal Frontline and an FTNN board member.

Fetal care nursing is one of medicine's most specialized — and least visible — roles. In this episode of The Fetal Frontline, host Kris Rimbos sits down with Melissa Dorn, a fetal care nurse with more than two decades in fetal therapy, for a grounded, honest look at what the work really involves.

Melissa breaks her job into four "buckets" — handling the intake and triage of referrals, connecting with anxious families before they ever arrive, centering care in the OR during fetal procedures, and logging every case to the research and NAFNet registry. Along the way she explains the conditions she sees most — twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, selective growth restriction, lower urinary tract obstruction, fetal anemia — how she coordinates a dozen specialties as "the hub that connects all the dots," and how she supports families through the hardest decisions a pregnancy can hold, without judgment. She also opens up about making memories for families, guarding her own well-being, and where she sees the specialty heading.

In this episode:

- What a fetal care nurse actually does, day to day — the "four buckets" of the work

- The conditions and procedures at the heart of fetal therapy

- Care coordination: keeping a dozen specialties on the same page

- Meeting families in crisis — education without overwhelm, trust, and grief

- Ethics and complex decisions, held with compassion and zero judgment

- Making memories, caring for the caregiver, and the future of the field

Chapters:

- 0:00 — The clinical voices in fetal care

- 1:13 — From med-surg to fetal therapy

- 4:35 — A day in four buckets

- 8:42 — Conditions, procedures & core skills

- 10:03 — Care coordination: the hub

- 12:47 — Meeting families in crisis

- 15:12 — The interdisciplinary team

- 17:21 — Ethics & complex decisions

- 19:53 — Making memories

- 20:46 — Caring for the caregiver

- 23:03 — Where fetal care nursing is heading

- 25:47 — Closing reflection

Guest: Melissa Dorn, MN, RN — fetal care nurse, 20+ years in fetal therapy nursing.

Host: Kris Rimbos — host of The Fetal Frontline and an FTNN board member.

In 2015, one nurse saw a gap no one else was filling — and decided to do something about it. Ten years later, the Fetal Therapy Nurse Network has grown from 25 founding members to nearly 440 across the United States and Canada.

In this inaugural episode of The Fetal Frontline, founder Katie Francis sits with host Kris Rimbos to trace the network's origin story: how a young coordinator at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon found herself building a fetal program from scratch, why she finally asked "why are we all reinventing the wheel?", and the conversations with pioneers — Jody Farrell at UCSF, Lori Howell at CHOP, and Dr. Bill Polzin of NAFNet — that turned an idea into a meeting of twenty-five nurses.

Katie talks candidly about the moment she felt judged for sharing a hard delivery, and how that single experience shaped the network's most important unwritten rule: we do not judge each other, ever. She reflects on what FTNN taught her about leadership — checking your ego at the door, advocating openly instead of covertly, and making peace with the fact that what you start is never really yours to keep.

Plus: the inaugural Lori J. Howell Excellence in Fetal Nursing Award, the rise of precision medicine in fetal care, and where the network goes from here.

In this episode: – Why fetal therapy nursing is a "specialty of a specialty" – The "coordinator of coordinators" role – How peer endorsement built FTNN's credibility before any marketing did – What vulnerability — said out loud, by the founder, first — actually does for a network – The founder's loop: ego vs. what's good for the network

The Fetal Frontline is the official podcast of the Fetal Therapy Nurse Network. Learn more at https://www.fetaltherapynursenetwork.org.