A Safer Way To Bring Babies Into The World

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center partnered with Dr. Jason Collins of the Pregnancy Institute in Slidell, Louisiana and with Prism, a San Antonio manufacturer of medical products, to improve obstetric forceps used to position an infant in the mother's womb prior to delivery, and in some cases, used to assist with the delivery.

Fiber optic sensing technology originally developed for the X-33, NASA's new single stage orbit system, was applied to redesign obstetrical forceps. Hydrogen and oxygen tanks aboard the X-33 have fiber optic sensors embedded along the edge to monitor the health of the entire system, detecting problems before they arise. In the forceps, the fiber optic smart sensors are embedded inside the handles sensing deflation and pulling forces. The monitor provides the physician with exact readings immediately.

Obstetrical forceps have been in use for over 300 years with more than 700 variations of the design, however, none of these allowed the physician to assess the force the instrument placed on the infant. An improvement was definitely needed that would minimize the risk to newborns delivered by forceps. NASA's solution: forceps made of polymeric material which flexes under pressure with fiber optic sensors from space program instrumentation technology, embedded in the material during the manufacturing process that indicate strain. Optical fibers lead from the strain indicators to a unit that allows the obstetrician to monitor forces on the infant throughout delivery. The forceps have a fail-safe mechanism to ensure that no more than five pounds of pressure is exerted on the infantís head with a pull force limit of approximately twenty pounds.

The forceps will benefit medical students as well. At present, obstetricians must acquire a feel for their instruments during actual infant delivery situations to ascertain how much force is safe. The fiber optic forceps will allow obstetrical students to learn how to use forceps within safe limits before entering practice.

Dr. Collins predicts that the fiber optic forceps will reduce the number of cesarean section deliveries, reduce the risk of injury to the mother, and significantly lower the occurrence of fetal injury caused by ordinary forceps, thus reducing overall health care costs.