Doctors at Berlin hospital produce first-ever MRI scan of baby at moment of birth

Doctors at a Berlin hospital have made a medical breakthrough after capturing live MRI images of the miracle of birth.

The pictures, taken after a German mother agreed to give birth inside a magnetic-resonance imaging machine, could provide valuable new insights into the birthing process and allow future lives to be saved.

Gynaecologist Ernst Beinder at Berlin's Charité Hospital said the birth proceeded normally and the machine filmed all the movements and processes that went on inside the womb.

'We can now see all the details we previously could only study with probes,' he said. ...

While most MRI machines are tube-shaped, the Charité team developed a special 'open' scanner which provided the necessary room for midwives and the mother during the birth.

The creation of the live MRI images of a birth could prove vital in understanding complications during the birthing process and the need for around 15 per cent of women to have a Caesarian section due to the baby not moving sufficiently into the birth canal. ...

via Doctors at Berlin hospital produce first-ever MRI scan of baby at moment of birth | Mail Online.