If you give birth in America, chances are good your doctor will use a fetal monitoring device during delivery. In fact, doctors use fetal monitoring devices in more than 85 percent of births in this country. They do this despite any evidence the devices are beneficial in any way.

“Honestly, the technology got rolled out before we knew if it worked or not,” said one St. Louis obstetrician.

In use since the early 1970s, fetal monitors have failed to reduce the risk of either cerebral palsy or newborn deaths. In addition, fetal monitors have significantly increased the incidence of both Cesarean surgeries and forceps deliveries.

Cesarean surgeries are much more costly than traditional births and extend the new mother’s recovery time.

Fetal monitoring technology was supposed to reduce the risk of either cerebral palsy or newborn death by giving doctors early warning signs of when a baby was not receiving enough oxygen to its brain during child birth. The thinking was that the early warning would give doctors more time to take corrective action and save the baby from injury or death.

The flaw in that reasoning is that 70 percent of cerebral palsy cases are caused before labor begins. Only 4 percent of cerebral palsy is caused solely from a mistake during childbirth. The remaining 26 percent of cases are caused by a combination of factors that can occur before, during or after childbirth.

In summary, fetal monitoring has the potential to prevent only 4 percent of cerebral palsy children and it has failed to do even that. Physicians’ new understanding of the technology is not expected to result in a lower incidence of cerebral palsy, but hopefully it will result in a lower incidence of unnecessary, costly Cesarean surgeries.

The reason for such hope is that the new guidelines refine what once were two categories of fetal monitor data into three categories. Previously, data was categorized as “reassuring” and “nonreassuring” so doctors would err on the side of caution and often intervene in the “nonreassuring” cases when in fact the babies would have been perfectly healthy without intervention.

Now the categories are “normal,” “nonreassuring” and “abnormal.” The “normal” babies clearly do not require intervention like Cesarean surgery or forceps delivery. The new guidelines go as far as to say that “abnormal” babies do not require immediate intervention but should instead be quickly evaluated for other means of providing the baby with oxygen such as giving the mother oxygen, changing her position, treating her low blood pressure or ceasing the artificial induction of labor.

The “nonreassuring” category now calls for much more thorough evaluation of additional factors before doctors are encouraged to intervene. Previously, where a doctor was apt to intervene in “nonreassuring” cases based solely on the fetal monitoring data, the guidelines now call for doctors to “look at the entire clinical picture, not just the [fetal monitor data].”

The entire clinical picture includes things like the mother’s blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, what medicines she might have been given, the frequency of contractions and how fast labor is progressing.

Immediate delivery is discouraged by the guidelines so hopefully that will save future mothers from the pain and costs of unnecessary Cesarean surgery. Further refinements of the guidelines are expected to be released next year.

The study’s conclusion is important for two reasons. First, folic acid benefits women of all ages, races and additional health factors. Second, premature birth is a substantial risk factor for birth injuries and complications like cerebral palsy, blindness, mental retardation and chronic lung disease.

Reducing these devastating injuries will not only reduce human disability but also the economic costs of caring for the disabled.

This recent study supports what doctors have been telling women for years – that they should injest 400 micrograms of folic acid every day if they are able to become pregnant. Doctors have known for quite a while that increased folic acid intake before pregnancy and during the first trimester can substantially reduce the risk of serious birth defects of the brain and spinal cord.

The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine looked at 38,033 participants.

The robots reduce physical impairment by stimulating neurological development. By guiding a user’s limb when they initiate movement, the robots “teach” the children to move differently. That new movement done repeatedly then stimulates neurological development as the child’s brain and nerves learn to move differently.

The technology has been targeted for use with children because their neurological connections are much more malleable than adults’. Thus they will experience much more neurological development in response to the robot treatment than adults.

The robots work with shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand movements as well as ankle movement. The next step MIT wants to take is to allow the robots to assist users with improving their grip

The technology was originally developed to treat stroke patients and was adapted for use with cerebral palsy sufferers. One in 278 children have cerebral palsy.

The Limbs Alive project won a top award recently for its study of specially designed Wii games for cerebral palsy children. Researchers hope their result will spur more computer scientists to develop similar games.

The games are not as fast or as complex as traditional Wii games and requires players to use both controllers in both hands. That encourages improved coordination and muscle control in the child’s weaker hand as well.

In addition, children are more motivated to engage in their therapy if it takes the form of a Wii game.

The games tested in the study were customized to each child’s impairment after a complete interview and evaluation. They then took the Wii games home with them and used them there.

The next step for the Limbs Alive program is to conduct a random, double blind study to determine if these specially deseigned games improve function of the affected arm in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy following neonatal stroke.

New studies show that cerebral palsy Botox treatments have serious side effects even up to three weeks after the treatment. If your child is experiencing difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, muscular weakness, drooping eyelids, constipation, aspiration pneumonia, speech disorder, facial drooping, or double vision, seek immediate emergency medical attention.

This new warning is an update to a 2008 safety review of cerebral palsy Botox treatments and will be included on the label and patient information packet going forward.

Although the FDA never approved Botox for cerebral palsy pediatric patients, it is a very commonly used and widely accepted treatment  across the country. Cerebral palsy Botox treatments involve the injection of large amounts of Botox deep into spastic muscles for the purpose of relaxing them.

The problem noted in the new study is that the Botox spreads well beyond the spastic muscles and has drastic side effects. The most serious side effects include hospitalizations involving ventilatory support and death.

The FDA also requests that all side effects be reported through MedWatch Every report helps the next child.

Four-year-old Henry Ford underwent selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery on March 31, 2009 to sever problem causing nerves in his spinal cord. The procedure permanently reduces muscle spasticity.

Ford suffered a birth injury that resulted in cerebral palsy leaving him unable to walk. He began displaying symptoms just after birth mostly in his leg muscles, which became stiff and immobile. As he grew, it became painful to use his legs.

Now, Ford is able to walk with the help of a walker and can crawl up onto his couch and kick.