Birth Right

Students and faculty at Johns Hopkins University have devised an ingenious -- and very lifelike -- simulation that helps doctors deal with birthing room emergencies.

Delivering a baby is not simple. But with the help of a new birthing simulator designed at Johns Hopkins University, complicated labors may become easier for doctors, midwives and their patients.

The birthing device consists of four parts, and unlike commercially available birth simulators, the maternal model has a pelvis that mimics soft tissue which allows for better training in matters of maternal manipulation.

The fetal model is equipped with bioengineering instrumentation that allows measurement of the effect of clinician-applied force on the fetus. The custom, nylon-lycra glove has pockets sewn into it to house force-sensors, which are used to measure the traction in delivery. Wires emanating from the sensors are connected to a computer-based data-acquisition system that stores and then processes the data on a laptop.

The goal, as with any simulator, is to better prepare doctors for emergencies that can't possibly be practiced in real time.

"Complicated deliveries comprise a small percentage of vaginal births, so when confronted in the delivery room with a problem, sometimes doctors arent ready for them" says Dr. Robert H. Allen, an associate research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The simulator began as an idea between Allen and his colleague Dr. Edith Gureswitsch, an assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology who has been practicing OB/GYN for over 13 years.
Allen assigned his students to come up with a device that would allow doctors and midwives to manipulate a newborn when it was stuck in the birth canal.

The students completed the project last April, 2004. Team leader William Tam and fellow team member Yen Shi "Gillian" Hoe travelled to San Francisco last September when the simulator won top prize in a student design competition during the international meeting of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

It is now being used to study ways to solve complications during high-risk deliveries.

That's no small task, either. There are around four million deliveries in the United States annually, with about one million delivered via C-section -- often because an emergency erupts in the delivery room.

Story continues below

The simulator will help prepare doctors, for instance, for a frightening emergency that can happen with little or no warning such as shoulder dystocia, the obstetric complication where a babys shoulders become stuck behind the maternal pubic bone after the head comes out. That procedure, even when managed correctly, results in 1,500 permanent injuries each year.