According to UNICEF, the majority of stillbirths occur in poor countries. An experimental new pressure-sensitive surgical glove could help reduce these numbers by allowing clinicians to measure the orientation of the baby in the womb.
When a woman has trouble giving birth, it is often because the baby is in a position that prevents it from passing through the birth canal.
Wealthy countries can use ultrasound and other technologies to determine if this is the case. These systems also show what position the baby is in, allowing the obstetrician to decide how the baby needs to be moved. Unfortunately, clinics in developing countries often lack such expensive imaging equipment. That’s where gloves come in.
Developed by scientists at University College London, the gloves are really just standard surgical gloves with flexible pressure and force sensors printed on the fingertips. It costs only US$1 to manufacture.
The sensor is made of metal oxide nanocomposites and generates an electric current when an object is touched or rubbed. Importantly, it is thin and sensitive enough to work with a second glove worn over it to maintain sterility.
The idea is that if a woman is going through a difficult labor, the clinician performing the vaginal examination can determine the baby’s orientation by wearing gloves and seeing where the baby’s head is and which way it’s facing. Additionally, the sensor tells the user how. many We try our best not to harm the baby.
Smartphone support is under consideration, but the linked PC screen currently displays a rough image of the head.
“The computer screen shows a diamond (the shape of the front fontanelle in front of the baby’s head) or a triangle (the shape of the fontanelle at the back of the baby’s head),” says lead scientist Dr. Shireen Jaufrawully. told us “The gloves tell you which side of the baby’s head is being felt when in contact with the sutures (the joints that hold the bones together) in the baby’s skull.”
A prototype glove has already been used to identify sutures on a baby’s head on a silicon model. Clinical trials are currently being planned, including actual human births.
“We hope that if the clinical translation is successful, this glove will be used all over the world to make artificial births safer,” said Jauffraully.
The study is described in a paper recently published in the journal. The forefront of global women’s health.
Source: Frontiers
