Thank you for inviting me here today.

It gives me great pleasure to be launching a piece of new equipment that will save babies' lives - what could be better than that?

Twin to twin transfusion syndrome is a serious antenatal disorder which, left untreated, has 90% mortality for the twins and a 15% chance of Cerebral Palsy for babies that do survive.

Up until now New Zealand mothers carrying babies with twin to twin transfusion syndrome had to travel to Australia for treatment. But now we can say 'we have the technology'.

The new Laser fetoscope will treat around 20 to 30 mothers of twins each year and I'm told we expect to have a 55% success rate of saving both twins. What's more - for those  babies who survive , their chance of developing Cerebral Palsy is halved. 

That is welcome news and we have the Starship Foundation and Mercury Energy Star Supporters Club to thank for making it happen.  The old saying  'if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves' couldn't be truer in this case.

I am told the collective power of thousands of customers donating as little as a dollar a month in their electricity bills raised the $142,000 dollars needed for the laser fetscope.

Thank you for your generosity and thanks to James Munro CEO of Mercury Energy.

We are a small population spread across a large distance.

We need to use our few resources wisely.

Today's event is an example of that.

We have literally half a handful of specialist obstetricians serving the high end, highly intensive needs of a small group of New Zealand mothers to be.

Up until now those mothers had to travel to Australia for treatment like fetascope laser surgery.

No longer. 

The Laser Fetoscope is part of a new national Maternal Fetal Medicine Network being funded by this government which will build on the working relationships of national fetal medicine specialists around the country and which will ultimately benefit New Zealand mothers and their babies.

The Maternal Fetal Medicine Network will enable doctors and specialists around the country to keep in contact with each other and communicate via a new website.

This will enable doctors to access clinical protocols for rare conditions, contact specialists for advice, and if they do have a problem, refer, so the right tests and the right treatment can be carried out at the right time.

The National Government is completely supportive of the country's clinicians and specialists getting together in networks like this to optimise and maximise the value of the good work they do around the country.

Finally I'd like to thank the people at Starship and National Women's Health who've put in considerable work and organisation to launch this part of the new Maternal Fetal Medicine Network  - the laser fetoscope.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the efforts on this project of:

• Kay Hyman - General Manager of  Starship Children's Health and National Women's Health


• Dr Emma Parry - National Women's Clinical Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine


• Professor Peter Stone - Professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Head of Department for Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland and;


• The CEO of Starship Foundation - Andrew Young.

Thank you - and I now declare the laser fetoscope launched. May it save many precious lives.