PORTAGE, Ohio — Women with high-risk pregnancies have enough weight to worry about without having to drive long distances for a doctor’s appointment.

Courtney Spinden is 32 weeks along in her pregnancy.

“She’s a kicker,” she said as she was getting an ultrasound.

Spinden was at the new UH Mobile OB Unit provided by University Hospitals MacDonald Women’s Hospital.

This is Spinden’s second pregnancy, and it came with some concern.

She developed gestational diabetes, making hers a high-risk pregnancy and requiring she have ultrasounds more frequently.

But Spinden lives at least 40 minutes from her doctor’s office, and getting there so frequently could prove to be challenging. The new mobile ultrasound unit is helping to alleviate some of that. It travels to Portage and Elyria

“It’s just 7 minutes now,” she said.

The mobile unit also makes it easier for her husband, Leon Spinden, to join her on her appointments. His face lit up as he watched his baby on the monitor.

“I get to be here with my love, my wife. It just brings you a lot of joy,” he said.

The equipment on the unit is specialized, has better imaging and is more advanced than the machines used in a doctor’s office, according to Heather Skoog, diagnostic medical sonographer at University Hospitals.

“We only do high-risk pregnancy, pregnancy with complications or (if the) baby has complications. We take different pictures, have different protocols. We see (the patients) more often,” Skoog said.

She said the machines she uses have greater resolution. In addition to being able to detect any concerns the machines can see small details including hair on Spinden’s baby’s head.

In addition to specialized equipment, the ultrasounds are read by doctors specialized in high-risk pregnancies. The mobile unit also comes equipped with a private compassion room should a patient need to speak to her doctor.

As excited as Spinden was to see her baby’s ultrasound pictures, she’s ready for her arrival.

“I’m very ready, but I’ll wait until she’s ready,” she said.