By Josie Budd
Published Feb 27, 2011
Every year in the UK, over 1000 newborn babies die or suffer brain injury as a result of lack of oxygen at birth.Birth asphyxia is a devastating complication in otherwise healthy full-term infants, occurring when the blood flow to the brain is cut off during labour and childbirth. When the brain and vital organs are starved of oxygen, the risk of death or lifelong disability such as cerebral palsy is worryingly high.
Professor Marianne Thoresen at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol has been pioneering cerebral protection treatments for brain injury in babies since 1998. She was the first to show that cooling babies after a lack of oxygen can protect the newborn brain, reducing and in some cases eliminating brain damage. Cooling techniques can reduce the death rate, risk of seizures and long term disabilities including cerebral palsy.
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