An artificial womb used to help premature lambs fully develop after birth. This study is led by Alan Flake at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. According to an interesting comment by Winterplatypus:
“This is all about finding a way so the baby doesn’t have to breathe. Before you are born you get oxygen from the placenta via the umbilical cord.
Unborn babies cant drown because their lungs are already full of fluid, but if there is a problem with the placenta they can die from not having oxygen. When you are born, the placenta stops working and you have to start breathing.
The lambs don’t drown because they are transferred to the bag before they start breathing (before they are born), they still get oxygenated blood from their umbilical cord. The big tube attached to the bag has the umbilical cord inside it, it goes off to a machine that adds oxygen.
One of the main reasons why they are trying to develop this technology is because sometimes the fluid surrounding the baby gets infected with bacteria. When that happens the doctors have to get the baby out even if it’s too early. The baby suddenly has to start breathing but its lungs haven’t developed properly yet, so they get a lot of problems relating to breathing. It’s kind of a big deal because there was no alternative to breathing before.”
More interesting science posts here: @sixpenceee
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