A Toronto couple whose baby daughter died during childbirth says doctors should make screening for vasa previa — a condition where the placenta lies low in the uterus — a common practice.

Michael and Amanda Krznaric want checking for vasa previa to be routine.
(CBC)

Michael and Amanda Krznaric want doctors to start routinely checking for the condition, in which placenta blood vessels block the birth canal and rupture during labour, leaving the baby without vital blood or oxygen.

In Canada, it is estimated 132 babies die unnecessarily each year because the condition goes undetected.

But about 99 per cent of those infants could have survived with early diagnosis, an American authority on vasa previa has said.

Dr. Yinka Oyelese, a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, has backed the Toronto couple's call for routine screening.

"Most women still have one or two ultrasounds during their pregnancies and looking for vasa previa can be done as a routine part of ultrasound, without adding any time or cost to what is done," Oyelese said.

The resources and staff exist to do the test in Canada , but it is not included in federal guidelines for all pregnancies, said Dr. John Kingdom, a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

Tests for other conditions with the same odds, such as Group B steptococcus infections, are done routinely. Testing for vasa previa would not require more training, but would involve shifting ultrasound priorities to include the mother as well as the fetus, Kingdom said.

A colour Doppler ultrasound showing blood flow in the womb could have shown the Krznarics there was a potential problem.

'It was that easy for her life to be saved'

"We could have done a C-section a few weeks before to prevent this from happening, and we were very disappointed and a bit angry to know it was that easy for her life to be saved," said Amanda Krznaric.

It was only after the couple did their own research to find out why their newborn died that they discovered their baby could have been delivered safely, if their doctor had simply checked a box for a colour Doppler ultrasound.

"Our hearts sank because we realized that check box is what stood between life for our daughter or death for her," she said.

"Throughout the pregnancy, we were told that the baby's healthy and that it would be a regular delivery, and it ended up being something totally different."

She noted that while women often undergo routine ultrasounds in many provinces across the country to check for signs of low-lying placenta — one of the risk factors for vasa previa — there is no routine screening for vasa previa itself.

Affects 1 in 2,500 pregnancies

It is estimated vasa previa affects one in 2,500 pregnancies and has a mortality rate higher than 95 per cent, Michael Krznaric said.

"The body that sets these standards for Canada, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, they have ignored parents like ourselves," he said.

Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has become aware of the concern. It plans to recommend routine screening as part of ultrasounds done at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

In Canada, meanwhile, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says it has a committee looking at the issue.