Low-and middle-income countries account for 98 per cent of stillbirths across the globe. The predominant factor responsible for this is obstructed labour and the lack of availability of skilled birth attendants in these countries.
To solve this, a group of researchers from the University College of London have designed a low-cost wearable device that can accurately detect a baby’s position during labour. This can help make operative vaginal births safer.
The device uses special sensors that line a normal surgical glove. This generates an electrical charge when passing over materials of different characteristics. The charge produces a current which can be measured and help detect the difference between skull bones and sutures (skull joints) on a model of a baby’s head.
This allows for accurate detection of the baby’s position so healthcare practitioners can use their instruments (ventouse/forceps) in a safe manner. The glove further helps to monitor the device with the help of a smartphone application, enabling the attendants to assess the pressure they apply. .
The device has been tested on phantoms by performing mock vaginal examination. The sensitivity and accuracy were found to be 100 per cent in detecting the fetal head positioning along with degree of molding.
“It is a normal surgical glove with special sensors (triboelectric) spray-coated onto the index finger. It is then covered with a second sterile surgical glove for sterility,” Dr Shireen Jaufuraully, corresponding author of the study, told Happiest Health.
Dr Nuzhat Aziz, who heads the obstetric emergency department at Fernandez Hospitals in Hyderabad and is also the vice-president of Stillbirth Society of India, says that a wrong assessment results in the use of wrong instruments which may lead to birth trauma to the baby.
“Fetal head sutures (gaps in skull bones) are used to determine the head position in the maternal pelvis. This information is important before operative vaginal birth, where an instrument is used to assist a woman birth her baby,” Dr Aziz told Happiest Health.
Though larger studies are required to confirm the efficacy and applicability of their sensing gloves, the phantom studies performed could potentially support them in reducing the number of still births and maternal deaths, say the researchers.
They are proposing that the total cost of manufacturing the gloves would be under US $1, making them affordable enough to be used in low-income countries.
While conducting the study, these gloves were covered by a routinely used standard sterile surgical glove to maintain the sterile environment.
Many studies done earlier have tried to decipher the way humans respond to stimuli which could help reduce human errors during any surgical or medical procedures. These novel devices tend to help in timely diagnosis and treatment outcomes.
Dr Jaufuraully further mentions that these sensing gloves could be used for other medical applications as well. For instance, in neurosurgery, it is essential to know the amount of pressure exerted by the wearer on the delicate structures of the brain.
