Science / Medicine : Preventing Crippling Deliveries

Delivering a baby with an exposed spinal cord before its mother begins experiencing labor pains significantly reduces the risk the infant will be seriously crippled, Seattle researchers reported last week.

According to the study of 200 babies with meningomyelocele, a birth defect affecting about two of every 1,000 fetuses, those born by Cesarean section before contractions began were about 55% less likely to be severely paralyzed than those delivered by Cesarean after labor began. They found that labor did not affect intelligence, however.

Labor contractions apparently put too much pressure on the exposed spinal cord and further damage it, a team led by pediatrician David Luthy of the Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Although the results involved only fetuses with one birth defect, the Luthy team said its findings may apply to other spinal cord defects such as spina bifida, which appears in about one out of 2,000 births. But they cautioned that the technique would not help babies born with multiple birth defects.