Soft, Comfortable Sensors First to Comprehensively Monitor Pregnant Women, Their Babies Without Wires
Laboring mothers have been wearing the same cumbersome, polyester fetal-monitoring belt for decades. Not only can these belts slip out of place, requiring constant adjustment, they along with the array of other wires taped to the mother for monitoring tether the mother to the bed, limiting her ability to walk around or move freely in ways that are more comfortable.
Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Northwestern University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is replacing all the belts and wires with three small, thin, soft, flexible and comfortable wireless sensors.
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Laboring mothers have been wearing the same cumbersome, polyester fetal-monitoring belt for decades. Not only can these belts slip out of place, requiring constant adjustment, they along with the array of other wires taped to the mother for monitoring tether the mother to the bed, limiting her ability to walk around or move freely in ways that are more comfortable.
Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Northwestern University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is replacing all the belts and wires with three small, thin, soft, flexible and comfortable wireless sensors.
The new wearable devices measure the mother’s and baby’s vital signs as well as provide new data, including information about the mother’s physical movements and laboring positions, that cannot be collected with current technology. Because the devices seamlessly stream data straight to a physician’s smartphone or tablet, the sensors open new possibilities for remote mo
Covid vaccines do not harm placenta, contrary to social media misinformation, study finds
There’s no biological basis behind ongoing social media claims that Covid-19 vaccines can harm the placenta, the organ that provides a growing baby oxygen and nutrients during pregnancy.
“There’s no theoretical reason to believe these vaccines would be harmful,” Dr. Richard Beigi, who sits on the Immunization, Infectious Disease, and Public Health Preparedness Expert Work Group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told CNN in a Q&A on the subject.
“There’s never been any vaccine that’s been linked with infertility,” he said.
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IMAGE: A microscopic look at a placenta in the study, which was not damaged from the COVID-19 vaccine. view more
Credit: Northwestern University
CHICAGO - A new Northwestern Medicine study of placentas from patients who received the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy found no evidence of injury, adding to the growing literature that COVID-19 vaccines are safe in pregnancy. The placenta is like the black box in an airplane. If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened, said corresponding author Dr. Jeffery Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine pathologist. From what we can tell, the COVID vaccine does not damage the placenta.
Placentas of vaccinated pregnant women show no injury from COVID vaccine, researchers find chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.