Accurate monitoring could decrease unnecessary C-sections and increase healthy births

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) recently announced a new funding opportunity through its Making Obstetrics Care Smart (MOCS) program to make the U.S. the safest place in the world to have a baby. MOCS will develop novel tools to transform labor and delivery from an era of guesswork into one informed by objective measures and more personalized care.  

The standard of care for monitoring a baby’s wellbeing during labor & delivery is no different today than it was 50 years ago. Fetal heartrate monitoring, performed through the mother’s abdomen, remains largely unchanged from the 1970’s. Unfortunately, it fails to reliably provide critical information like whether the baby is getting enough oxygen. Cesarean sections are sometimes necessary, but these procedures can be risky and are often performed without accurate information on a baby’s oxygenation status. Alternatively, undiagnosed low oxygen can cause a baby to have lifelong complications. A lesser-discussed side effect of traumatic deliveries is that hospitals face litigation costs, and physicians themselves face burnout. Many healthcare providers, in turn, opt to leave obstetrics – a practice that is already seeing decline. 

MOCS seeks to integrate advanced diagnostics and smart analytics to achieve safer births for all mothers and babies. Through an Innovative Solutions Opening, the program invites proposals across two technical areas: assigning risk scores for low fetal oxygen levels; and the development of novel, non-invasive, and wireless monitoring methods to assess that risk. The program expects teams to use new sensors paired with artificial intelligence to predict infant status and provide the best recommendations for intervention.  

If MOCS is successful, unnecessary C-sections and maternal complications will decrease and infant health will increase. Overall, mothers, families, and hospital staff will be more comfortable and confident in their choices for critical labor and delivery care. 

Learn more about MOCS on its program page, including information about the ISO and Proposers’ Day registration.