- Mother gave birth in a specially-designed 'open' MRI scanner
- Footage shows 30 seconds of second stage of labour as mother tries to push baby down the birth canal
By Claire Bates
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Doctors at a Berlin hospital have released an MRI video that shows the first real-time footage of a baby being born - from the inside.
The team led by Dr Christian Bamberg made the medical breakthrough in November 2010 but only published still images at the time.
The 30-second movie shows a baby as it descends down the birth canal of a 24-year-old mother who volunteered for the project.
The mother spent 45 minutes inside the MRI machine during the second stage of her labour, also known as the 'pushing stage'.
The footage shows that each time the uterus contracts it exerts pressure on the baby sliding him further down the birth canal. When the contraction is over the uterus relaxes and the baby's head recedes slightly.
Medics had to stop recording before the baby emerged to ensure the newborn wasn't exposed to MRI noise.
The film could provide valuable insights into the birthing process as it has allowed scientists to see details previously only studied with probes. It could help explain why around 15 per cent of women have Caesarian sections because their babies don't move sufficiently into the birth canal.
While most MRI machines are tube-shaped, the team at Berlin's Charité Hospital developed a special 'open' scanner which provided the necessary room for midwives and the German mother during the birth on 20th November.
Gynaecologist Ernst Beinder said the birth proceeded normally and the machine filmed all the movements and processes that went on inside the womb.They were even able to use the machine to monitor the baby's heart beat.
The video (clockwise from top left) shows the baby being pushed along the birth canal (or vagina) each time the uterus contracts in a 'two steps forward, one step back' progression
According to The New Scientist the technique was recently used by doctors at Imperial College London to study unborn twins.
The researchers were investigating the common complication of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome when one baby receive too much blood while the other gets too little.
Using powerful magnets, MRI creates a strong field to make some atoms in the body detectable to radio waves.
The data can be used to create a cross-section of the patient, which provides detailed depiction of soft tissue and bone structure.
MRI scans are considered safer than X-rays but are disliked by patients to the loud buzzing noise made by the scanner as it processes images.
To protect the participants during the historic birth, the mother wore earmuffs to block out the noise and the machine was switched off when the amniotic sack surrounding the baby opened, to prevent the newborn's hearing being affected.
The Berlin hospital developed a special 'open' MRI scanner for the birth
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Amazing! Well done lady fascinating to see
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Birth is difficult enough, so I think that the credit should go to the brave woman who managed to achieve childbirth while having an mri.
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In what way then is this a 'miracle?' The brutes do it all the time. Is it then that 'miracles' are reserved for humans? Sure, and I'm Queen Nefertiti. Plants also replicate their DNA and, thank God, they don't have the technology to film it. What we're really seeing here is the creation of a new, temporary genetic storage unit. If we get to the heart of the matter all this business is the result of outsmarting deadly pathogens. Sex is extremely wasteful and self-fertilization is always to be preferred. However, the later comes with a danger. Pathogens quickly copy our defence mechanisms so creatures must be split into a 'male' and 'female' then reunited to form new genetic patterns that temporarily 'outwit' pathogens. This reunification has been given the name 'sex.' Let's keep a grip on things people!
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We all know radiation is not good for any living being and it is more relevant in case of a unborn/newborn. It may be safer than X-Ray but not totally safe. In the name of science, it is not fair for both mother and baby to be exposed to radiation for such a prolonged time. I sincerely hope that the risk outweigh then benefit in this case and that both mother and baby will not have any side effects at a later stage. - Tensed, Harrow, 27/6/2012 7:30 MRI stands for MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING - hence NO RADIATION involved
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Well as great as this is, but the hospital did not develope the 'open' MRI scanner. There are a few of them here in England too. I myself have been in two, in Oxford (Nuffielld hospital) and in Cheltenham. So please get your facts straight DM.
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Stop calling childbirth a "miracle," we all know how it works (and there aren't any angels or divine interventions involved, just a sperm and an egg). And as for the mri... I guess only females could find that amazing, so who am I to judge.
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This is amazing to watch! Makes me cross my legs a bit thinking back a year ago when I done it! Women have incredible bodies!
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Hats off to that woman. I needed drugs to get into an MRI scanner, I found it so claustrophobic so wouldn't have been able to do it during childbirth. Having said that I needed a whole lot of drugs for childbirth too so it could have been a win win situation.
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Wow, and I did that six times, 5 without an epidural! - Bardsinger, Fiddler's Green, 27/6/2012 15:14 Achievement? I have done it twice, without any pain relief at all. Let's not make childbirth a competition on who's toughest, eh? And I totally would have given birth to both of my boys in an open MRI just to have those images of them being born - what a memento!
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Wow. That is amazing. Personally I am not a fan of watching women giving birth, but that is something else. Two steps forward, one step back, describes it precisely, although I can't say that I was aware of this at the time of my own decidedly unpleasant forays into this big Con perpetuated against me by Mother Nature. Love the little horrors half to death, of course, but that's another big Con. Anyway, I hope it helps, and well done that woman.
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