Last week a group from Argentina – doctors and an inventor – met at DMU with a doc from the World Health Organization and some of our family practice faculty, local OB experts and our Global Health leaders. They were here to test an invention that may help decrease the number of childbirth fatalities. Hard to explain, the simple plastic bag uses a tiny bit of suction to safely pull a baby’s head out. If proven safe the bag would be super cheap and easy to train a lay person to use. In many countries with high infant and mother mortality, the problem is easy to fix. Usually hemorrhage or infection is the problem. But using this bag would prevent the delivery assistant from sticking unwashed hands into the mother and it would also make for a more gentle extraction, hopefully preventing hemorrhage.
Not only did the invention work beautifully on our birthing simulators, the visit also produced positive partnership discussions that would enable DMU to do even more good around the world.
Read what the Register said about the invention and our global outreach.
Photo by me.
