An artificial womb could build a bridge to health for premature babies
TORONTO — A surgical team scurries around a pregnant female pig lying unconscious on an operating table. They're about to take part in an experiment that could help provide a new option to help premature babies survive.
"The ultimate goal of today is to transition a fetus onto that artificial womb," says Dr. Christoph Haller, motioning to a clear rectangular plastic sack with tubes running in and out of it.
"We're transitioning it into an artificial environment that allows the fetus to still maintain its regular physiology," says Haller, a pediatric heart surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children.
Today, it's a pig fetus that Haller and his colleagues will be using to test their artificial womb. But their hope is that someday, technology like this will help and avoid serious complications, such as blindness and permanent damage
