Newborns’ cry all about breathing easy

IT is the most anticipated sound in the delivery suite — the full-chested wailing of a newborn as they take their first breath in the outside world.

But until now little has been known about what happens in babies’ lungs as they make the biggest transformation the human body will undertake – from the liquid-filled womb to the gaseous atmosphere.

Melbourne researchers have teamed with engineers to develop a new type of monitoring technology — a satin sash that can unobtrusively wrap around a newborn’s chest – to record their first breaths.

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute-led study has uncovered the way babies use their first cries to clear and protect their lungs, a finding it hopes will improve resuscitation of premature babies.

Lead researcher David Tingay said using the new imaging technology, called electrical impedance tomography, which has already been approved for clinical use in Europe, allowed them to document what normal breathing patterns were for healthy newborns.

“Crying appears to be a very important part of the transition to natural air breathing because it generates large gas flows into the lungs and high pressures, which allows the lungs to filter very quickly,” Associate Professor Tingay said.

“As they breathe out in between each cry, they appeared to move gas from parts of the lungs that were already filled with air, to parts of the lungs that were less filled, to try to stop the parts of the lungs that were at risk of filling up with fluid again from doing so.”