Saving Lives in the Womb

Little by little, doctors have been learning how to save the lives of babies born with blood disorders caused by Rh-factor differences in their parents (TIME. Nov. 28, 1949). But in 17% of these pregnancies, the doctors have had no chance to use their new-found skills because the babies were stillborn. What was needed was a technique to save their lives in the womb.

Last week Georgetown University's Dr. O. Benwood Hunter Jr. reported that cortisone and ACTH will do this in most cases. The level of the mother's hormone secretions is carefully checked as pregnancy advances, and if it indicates that the baby's red blood cells are not forming properly, or are being destroyed, the mother gets cortisone. (Sometimes she also gets ACTH to step up her own and the baby's production of adrenal hormones like cortisone.)

As a result, Dr. Hunter told the American Association of Blood Banks, the stillbirth rate in cases of Rh incompatibility drops to 3%. And the 10% of babies formerly born alive but too weak to survive has been cut to 2%. Before he used cortisone, said Dr. Hunter, he had never seen an Rh-positive child born alive to an Rh-negative mother who had previously had a stillbirth; now, out of 21 such pregnancies, he has seen 18 live babies born, and 15 of them survived.

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