Back in 2010, a team of German doctors announced that they’d recorded the world’s first MRI of a woman giving birth. Back then, only still images were available — but now the researchers have released the video, and it’s spellbinding.
New Scientist explains how the video, which you can watch below, was acquired:
The video captures the active second stage of labour as the mother expels the fetus. The technique, called cinematic MRI, takes repeated images of the same slice of the body before joining them up to create an ultra-detailed video.
The scientists acquired the footage in order to examine the relationship between the movement of the fetus and its position as it travels through the birth canal. In turn, that should help doctors manage complications during labor and delivery.
For the rest of us, it’s just an amazing insight into how the human body works. [American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology via New Scientist]
