Thursday
Dec092010
Woman Gives Birth in an MRI Machine
Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 12:26AM
By Jill
A woman gave birth this week inside a magnetic-resonance imaging machine at Charité Hospital in Berlin. The Daily Mail reported that the experiment had been planned for two years and a special open scanner developed to allow room for the mother and midwives during the birth.
Image source: Daily Mail Online
More still images, including a frontal plane view, here.
Reader Comments (24)
OMG! How is this amount of radio waves and magetic field safe for a teeny tiny baby? Why, why, why?!?!?1
This makes me want to ralph my breakfast.
I noticed they flipped the image so the woman was vertical (everyone else has the woman supine)- too bad it wasn't really vertical, as I think the mechanics of labor are probably a little different with gravity involved....
I should instigate this at my hospital...."Uh, anyone want to help me flip this MRI machine on its side?"
I would never sign up for this because of the possibility of unknown health risks to baby, and because it seems like an unfriendly location to labor and deliver, but I have to admit that I find the images cool.
Holy cow! The nerd in me thinks this is super cool. Kudos to the mom and midwives--that had to be kind of awkward regardless.
Chris, the version of the image that's been floating around has the woman face down, presumably because it's easier to the see the baby's face and Mars Attacks eyeballs that way.
Vanessa, there's no evidence so far that MRI (as opposed to X-rays or CT scans) poses serious risks.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1211-safer_scans_for_pregnant_women.htm
Newborns can go through an MRI to diagnose abnormalities; my son had to have one because he had a fused seam on his skull (he turned out fine).
Not to say that new risks won't be discovered, as with any procedure.
They did mention that they were worried about the loud noise, and put the mom in headphones to block it, and turned the machine off as soon as the the head was out to protect the baby's ears. And she didn't get in the machine until she was ready to push, basically.
I am on the fence about how I feel about this too. Something about making birth a science project makes my skin crawl...then of course there is the years of indoctrination that still nags in my brain, the advancement of science is good. Yes, it is..but at what costs?
This bothers me in so many ways. When will stop trying to study the physiology of birth in settings that can completely screw it up?
Like many others, this is very geek-cool. However, I worry what will be drawn from the few willing to participate in these experiments. I imagine that those willing to help are those who have short(er) labors with fewer difficulties with a minimum of movement. This would obviously not be helpful in extrapolating data to other women.
On the other hand, I wonder if it might be beneficial in expanding VBAC access if we could prove that it's still "normal." Then again, we don't really know what it looks like, just that it's safe, so it could conceivably lead to even more freakouts.
The eye, as in all imaging really, freaks me the mess out.
Facinatingly freaky
Hmm, this is hands-down cool, though I hear some of your concerns. I would wager that the mama had a more accommodating birthing experience than your average hospital birth. Birth is already a science experience (in most settings) so this doesn't put me off. I think making it an intentional science experiment that is designed to gain information while being mindful of the well-being of the central participants is a much better model. I'd be really interested to see this recreated with other positions.
The timing of this is amazing for me! I just did a research paper (college class research paper, not scholarly journal research paper!) about the various things we know about labor and birth. What a great improvement over the super-old x-ray images we have had to contend with for so long. I bet Anne Frye is stoked! Compared to some of the other things science has done to peek in on babies during labor, this is a very benign bit of research.
I saw a similar case years ago where a woman almost gave birth in the CT machine. She was a large lady who came to emergency department complaining of bad abdominal pains which were coming every few minutes. She denied being pregnant.
The ER physician ordered a CT before checking a pregnancy test or doing a pelvic exam and so we got a series of beautiful pictures of a term baby deeply engaged in the pelvis. Very useful for teaching since these images would otherwise not be obtained, however probably not the best or most cost effective way of diagnosing a pregnancy.
She apparently delivered shortly afterwards in the ER and was transported to us afterwards with the films.
I'm not sure that I understand the real benefits of this scan...what are they hoping to learn? Doctors pretty much already know what happens to a baby as it is born, so what are they going to see in the time that the baby is being pushed out that they didn't already know? Hmm...I'm just not sure how this is going to "save lives", as one of the article claims.
Yes, Marc Attacks eyeballs! That's it! Freaky.
I am still sorting out my feelings about this. It may take a therapy session or two.
It's like... we won't believe that babies can really come out of vaginae until we can see it through technology. We humans are so weird.
Oh this is great! At least there is effort being made to better understand how birth really works- as it is the standard model of care is so ridiculous and harmful, it is good to see they are trying to do better. Hopefully this MRI made it evident that, at the very least, the supine position is backwards logic? We will see...
Can someone explain why the legs and feet look so very small and unfinished? I know they are curled up, but I can't see the long bones at all.
Creepy....I'm not sure the physical repercussions of this will outweigh the scientific benefits. :/
Oh look, she is giving birth on her back and what do ya know? The tail bone is pressed toward the baby unnaturally....
In the picture from the actual article, the vertebrae are on top...making it look like she was in a prone position...such as on her hands and knees. I think this is pretty great actually. I would do it in a heartbeat. All the doctors I work with that that the only way to know if a labour is progressing "normally" is to check cervical dilation. They have no respect for the what the baby and the pelvis are doing and how positioning can make such a huge difference...both the baby's and the mother's position. They don't seem to understand that there's more to labour and birthing than just the cervix and uterus. So I think this could really shed some light for normal birth for the medical world. And let's be honest...they won't believe it from us...they need to see it in their stupid scientific way to be able to accept it.