PrediBirth

I guess most of you know what Cesarean or C-section is. For those who don’t let me give you a definition. A “C-section” is a procedure in which a baby has to be extracted from the mother’s uterus through a small scale surgery. It is usually performed when a vaginal (natural) delivery is not possible.

If the Cesarean section is planned ahead it normally brings no complication or risk to the mother and baby’s health. However, according to a statistic from the World Health Organization, an unexpected (emergency) C-section is six to seven times more likely to result in harm or death to the newborn.

A group of French researchers took a note on that and developed software called “PrediBirth”. The computer program can predict childbirth complications when used with magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the fetus. The system works by creating 3D model out of the supplied images. By using this method the software can calculate how likely a normal birth is to occur.

While testing the system the researchers took MRI from 24 pregnant women. “PrediBirth” rated 13 of them as highly favorable for a normal birth. As expected by the researchers all of the 13 women had no complications when they were giving birth couple of months later. The software rated the rest as mildly favorable or at high risk for difficult birth. Unsurprisingly for the French scientists three of the pregnant women went with an elective C-section. The rest had to go through emergency cesareans due to an obstructed labor.

Dr. Olivier Ami the head of the researchers said: “This goes beyond simple imaging. The software simulates the properties of potential deliveries. With this virtual childbirth software, the majority of C-sections could be planned rather than emergency, and difficult instrumental extractions might disappear in the near future.”