A new medical device developed in Western Australia is offering the first breakthrough in fetal monitoring in 50 years, and is predicted to radically improve the safety of babies during labour.
Trialled at King Edward Memorial Hospital, DelivAssure has been co-designed by Perth-based medtech company VitalTrace, alongside researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Sydney – with design input from mothers who have experienced fetal monitoring during labour.
A small electrode sensor applied to the baby’s scalp once the mother’s waters have broken, the device can immediately detect when a baby isn’t receiving enough oxygen by continuously monitoring the amount of lactate in their blood. As well as being life-threatening, a lack of oxygen during childbirth can lead to long-term health issues like cerebral palsy, developmental delays and organ damage.
“This real-time feedback means that, for the first time, health practitioners caring for a woman in labour will be able to detect immediately when a baby is not receiving enough oxygen to the brain,” said VitalTrace co-founder and CEO Dr Arjun Kaushik, a UWA medicine graduate.
Current monitoring tools not only restrict the mother’s ability to move around, but are unreliable – leading to missed diagnosis of conditions like fetal brain injury and higher rates of interventions including Caesarian sections, explained Dr Kaushik.
“It allows us to better identify those babies who are compromised,” UWA Medical School Associate Professor Scott White told the ABC.
“But equally as important, it allows us to reduce the interventions we unnecessarily apply to women, which is a real profound improved health outcome.”
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“This is the biggest breakthrough in the way babies are monitored during labour in five decades, and it’s been made here in WA,” added Health Minister Meredith Hammat.
“VitalTrace has already been trialled across four sites nationally with success, including here at King Eddies.”
“It’s fabulous to see innovation from WA can guide mum and baby safely through a high-risk birth, and I’ll be closely watching the outcomes of further trials in the hope the device will soon be able to help even more people.”