Science/Tech

Artificial Womb May Help Develop Extremely Premature Babies Normally, Study Says [VIDEO]

By Carrie Ball | Update Date: Apr 26, 2017 08:44 AM EDT

Scientists recently created an artificial womb in hopes to save babies who are born prematurely. The study has been done to fetal lambs and had been published in the journal Nature Communications.

What Is The Artificial Womb?

The study of the artificial womb has been reported to work on several animals. It helped out severely premature born animals to develop normally for a month. This new study gives hope for human babies in the future.

Alan Flake, a fetal surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shared that the study had been successful on a fetal lamb. He noted that the lamb being tested with the artificial womb had developed normally. The subjects also had normal lung and brain maturation, according to NPR.

The artificial womb is made up of a clear plastic bag that is filled with synthetic amniotic fluid. Outside the bag is a machine that is attached to the umbilical cord. This is to provide the proper nutrition to the premature baby.

Can It Be Used On Humans?

This recent study has been praised by other researchers. It can definitely save severely premature babies to develop into normal ones. This study is yet to be done on humans and the researchers hope for it to be successful, just like the outcome that the fetal lamb had.

Meanwhile, it is yet to be known if this study will soon be done to humans. There have been a lot of babies born prematurely that do not make it because of poor development. This may be the only way that doctors can actually develop an extremely premature baby to live normally, as reported by The Guardian.

So far, as of this time, there has been no technology built to help extremely premature babies. It is only the mothers who can give the fetus the development that it needs once outside the womb. The artificial womb can be a big step for the future.

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