Although we are aware that medicine has come a long way in caring for premature babies, there is no doubt that there is no comparison between the uterus of the mother and the outside. There are many complications of being born early, and that can condition not only the life of the baby and future child, but also that of his whole family, with cases in which they often spend middle childhood between hospital and home, with various interventions and without being able to have a childhood like that of other children.
That is why a group of scientists have developed an intermediate solution between the maternal uterus and the incubator; a solution that our colleagues in Xataka have already spoken to us and that we want to mention from here: an artificial uterus consisting of a plastic bag filled with amniotic-like fluid, connected to the outside by the baby's cord.
They have already tried it with apparent success in sheep
To find out if it could be viable with human babies in the future, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia experimented with 107-day-old lambs, the equivalent to between 23 and 24 weeks of a baby. They put them inside the artificial uterus with amniotic fluid, connected the umbilical cord to the machine destined to "feed them" and there they spent 28 days until it was time for them to be "born."
Most importantly, observing the behavior of the offspring, served to conclude that for now everything is going well: they have normal lung and brain development and they walk and behave like a newborn sheep from their mother's womb.
The next thing will be to continue testing it on animals, see how the young evolve in the medium and long term and, if everything goes as expected, consider using it with premature human babies ten years from now.
How does it pass from the real uterus to the artificial uterus?
This was, apparently, the biggest problem they faced in previous versions and solutions: the young ended up suffering from infections from the mother's womb to the artificial one. With this new system, the fetus is removed by caesarean section in a sterile environment to be immediately inserted into the bag, which is permanently closed (avoiding new manipulations), in a liquid rich in electrolytes that is being renewed.
The cord leaves through an opening to which, before being separated from the maternal placenta, the cannulas and probes that make the nutrients and oxygen needed to continue advancing in their gestation reach the fetus.
Only for large premature babies
It is still too early to determine how the invention will end and in what cases it will be used, if it can finally be useful for human babies; the researchers have already clarified that under no circumstances may it replace the mother's body at the beginning. And the first thing that comes to mind is to think that some enlightened will occur to begin offering a (p) maternity a la carte in which fetuses are managed in this way, since they are embryos .
As I say, they have confirmed that this is not possible, at the moment, because there is no way to replicate everything that happens in a woman's womb so that an embryo develops correctly. However, at 23 weeks, when much of the work is advanced, then it could be helpful for all those babies who arrive on those days, much earlier.
And it is estimated that, in the US, 7 out of 10 babies born in week 23 die. And many of those who survive do so with lung problems or even derived from all the maneuvers and interventions performed to get them to survive. This is where this artificial uterus would come in, to try to help those babies who, to arrive so soon, have a very reserved prognosis.
Now we just need to see if it can work with humans and, if so, know what the differences will be with respect to intensive care in a Neonatal Care Unit. If about 37 weeks (or even more) the baby can "be born" much more developed, surely many couples will appreciate this "artificial pregnancy", even if it means having to spend many weeks without even being able to take it in my arms, despite being born long ago.
