NASA’s Special Anti-Gravity Suits Will Now Be Used To Help New Mothers. Amazing!

Cross pollination of ideas happens when technology from one field is applied for the benefit of another field and it works. This is how progress is achieved throughout multiple fields and eventually, technology helps the country grow.

Research has shown that the anti-gravity suits that astronauts wear while on space missions can also be used to help the internal bleeding in mothers who have recently given birth.

cambodia

In 1969, the NASA Ames Research Center helped out a woman who was suffering from postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), a condition which leads to excess internal abdominal bleeding in women even after they have given birth. NASA sent out an anti-gravity suit, or a ‘G-suit,’ as they call it, to the doctors.

 

The G-suit can be used to apply external pressure to the entire lower portion of a woman’s body so that the bleeding is reduced, long enough for her body’s natural healing processes to take over.

nauts

Astronauts used this suit so that the blood doesn’t pool in their legs. Further research by NASA concludes that this technology can be used for shifting blood to other parts of the body (in addition to stopping bleeding). Pressure applied to the lower part of the body and legs can help blood to be transferred to the heart and other organs in the body, and this process is known as autotransfusion.

 

The first publicly available version of this technology was manufactured by Zoex Corporation, a California-based company, and highly used by Dr. Paul Hensleigh, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in California.

g-suit

After following up on the studies of Dr. Hensleigh, Suellen Miller, who is a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, founded the Safe Motherhood Program with leading experts in the fields of Medicine and Obstetrics. Safe Motherhood has been rallying for the inclusion of the G-suit the world over, and the numbers are very impressive.

 

Finally, in 2012, the WHO and the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians officially recognised the G-suit as a safe way to handle PPH in women.

Commenting on the future of this revolutionary life-saving equipment, Miller says,

“If under clinical study conditions we can reduce that number by 50 percent, then we have the potential to save 35,000 young, healthy, otherwise productive women every year. We’ve determined that these suits can be used at least 70 times. So we’re looking at a life-saving device that costs less than a dollar per use. We’re taking this suit to the village, we’re taking it to the hut, we’re taking it to the poorest, most vulnerable, voiceless, powerless people grounded into the Earth, and making a difference for them. Thank you, NASA.”

 
After receiving significant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, Miller has expanded his program worldwide, and as of 2013, 20 countries have purchased low-cost versions of the suit and are showing excellent results.

Technology, ladies and gentlemen, can be used to literally save lives, if used with the right intent.


News and images source: NASA Spinoff
Cover image sources: 1 & 2

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.