Researchers detect brain hemorrhages in vaginally delivered babies

The first high resolution magnetic resonance imaging study performed on healthy newborns, reveals a quarter of babies delivered vaginally suffer small hemorrhages in their brains.

Perhaps, caused due to compression of the head during delivery, the bleeding heals quickly without producing any long term effect on the infant, results published in the online version of the journal Radiology state.

The researchers from Carolina took up 88 newborns an average of three weeks after birth for their study. While, 65 of them were delivered vaginally, the remaining 23 were delivered surgically through a C-section.

Using the high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers found that seventeen babies delivered vaginally (about 26 percent) had suffered bleeding in and around the brain, called intracranial hemorrhages.

But none of the 23 infants delivered through C- Section showed signs of bleeding, reports study.

In most cases bleeding was imaged between the brain and the membrane that covers it inside the skull, called subdural hematomas.

Dr. John H. Gilmore of University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, the lead author of the study explained, “Neither the size of the baby or the baby's head, the length of the labor, nor the use of vacuum or forceps to assist the delivery caused the bleeds.”

"It's just the process of being born," he added.

“The skull has not yet become solid and the bone plates overlap with each other. Passage through the birth canal compresses the plates, tearing small blood vessels, he said. Most of the bleeds occurred in the lower, rear part of the brain,” Gilmore explained.

While previous similar study had figured a 10 percent of vaginal deliveries to suffer from brain bleeding, researchers of the new study explain that the new imaging technology is designed to give more accurate results.

The previous studies were conducted for a somewhat longer after birth and used a less-sensitive imager, researchers add.

However, authors cautioned that the result of the study should not be taken as an argument to support C-sections.