Doctors at a hospital in Berlin, Germany have pulled off a world first by creating MRI images of a lady giving birth, The Local Newspaper reported.A team of obstetricians, radiologists and engineers at Charité Hospital have spent the last two years creating an “open” MRI scanner that permits a pregnant woman to fit fully into the machine to give birth. Traditional MRI machines appear like long, narrow tunnels.
Researchers hope the new machine will allow them to study in “greater detail” how the baby moves through the birth canal, which should assist them understand why a growing number of women end up needing a caesarean section.
For the first time we can obviously see the mechanics of a vaginal delivery. For years, obstetricians have relied on very crude methods of understanding complications like cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), which translates when the baby fails to fall into the birth canal and there is a rest in cervical dilatation, which ultimately leads to a C-section.”
“They never fully explain why some women are able to deliver 10-pound babies while others can not deliver 7-pound babies,” Dr. Manny Alvarez said.
Another immediate advantage to this technology is that it could also help better explain shoulder dystocia.
“This is a difficulty that could lead an infant to be significantly damaged at the time of vaginal birth,” Alvarez said. “Shoulder dystocia is when a baby’s head delivers through the vagina, however the shoulders get impacted behind the mother’s pelvic bone and it’s very difficult to guess. I think using this technology will allow us to have a better understanding of this process long-term.”
Here in the U.S., an predictable 30 percent of pregnant women deliver via caesarean section.
A hospital spokesman said the birth that took place in the new scanner went smoothly, and both the mother and baby are in good physical condition.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create complete images of the organs and tissues. Doctors frequently use them to help diagnose conditions such as aneurysms, spinal cord injuries and tumors, as well as back and joint injuries.
