In what's being hailed as a significant development in foetal monitoring, Australian scientists have created a device that can detect babies' oxygen levels during childbirth. The monitor has the potential to prevent major health issues and is also expected to reduce the rate of unnecessary emergency caesarean sections.
00:05There are times during the birth of my daughter where her heart rate couldn't be detected.
00:11Emily Stone says it added an extra layer of stress to an already traumatic experience.
00:17If this device was available it just would have given me greater peace of mind that she was healthy and safe.
00:22It is really the first breakthrough in fetal monitoring that we've had since the 1960s.
00:29The machine developed by a WA med tech company along with researchers from the universities of WA and Sydney can monitor oxygen levels in babies during labour.
00:39We developed a technology that's quite similar to the kinds of sensors that people with diabetes use to measure their glucose in real time.
00:49The world first providing more accurate data than the current method which relies on a heart rate monitor.
00:55Sometimes miss babies who are not getting oxygen all that well and at other times the diagnosis of when they're not getting enough oxygen might be significantly delayed.
01:05And the consequence of that for babies is really devastating.
01:10Low oxygen levels during birth can cause brain damage and cerebral palsy and in extreme cases death.
01:17It allows us to better identify those babies who are compromised but I think equally as important it allows us to reduce the interventions that we apply unnecessarily to women.
01:27It will helpfully halve the rate of emergency caesarean section which is a real profound improvement in health outcomes for mothers.
01:35The monitor has been seven years in the making with the WA government providing funding for its early development.
01:41While still in its trial stages it's hoped it will receive regulatory approval by 2027.
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