The physical and emotional health of pregnant mothers has a profound impact on the health of their unborn child. As part of the LIFESAVER Project, we believe that mental health matters when nurturing healthy fetal development for both the mother and her baby. Studies have found that the well-being of a mother can have a lasting effect on the health of her child, both during pregnancy and after birth.
The environmental crisis has become a major threat to the health of expectant mothers and their unborn children, with serious implications for maternal care and neonatal fatalities. In the face of mounting global concerns, it is important to understand how this crisis affects pregnant women and their families, and what measures can be taken to protect their health and safety.
Preterm births and associated problems are of significant concern for Europe and is the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years worldwide. Every year, hundreds of thousands of babies are born before the 37th week of pregnancy, putting them at risk of numerous short and long-term health problems.
The placenta is remarkable – a temporary organ that nourishes and protects the fetus – and is then discarded when its job is complete. It acts as a gatekeeper between mother and fetus by allowing oxygen and nutrients in while filtering out potentially harmful substances that can affect fetal health. In a world where increasing numbers of environmental pollutants may be putting pregnancies at risk, can the placenta still do its best job?
Harmful toxins can be present in the air, water, the workplace or everyday products. Substances with the potential to harm can be breathed in, absorbed, or consumed by a pregnant woman. They can then affect the fetus via the bloodstream and the placenta. What are some of the biggest offenders?
The LIFESAVER project’s multidisciplinary research will not only change what we know about the placenta and its role in protecting our unborn children; it aims to illuminate more the role that environmental toxins and pollutants play in prenatal health.
The Lifesaver Project is innovative and unique in many ways. Not only does it seek to lead the vanguard in pregnant women health research, but it also aims to do this excluding animal testing. If Lifesaver’s bio-digital twin system that replicates the behaviour of the human placenta for drugs and chemicals transmission proves as effective as we believe it will, could this spell the end for animal testing in the future?
The mind can barely wrap itself around the concept of a printer producing faithful, working versions of our body parts or organs. Yet, this technology continues to develop, opening up more and more health avenues to us, assisted by the work of researchers like Dr Andrew Daly and Professor Abhay Pandit of the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).
The amniotic membrane remains a fertile area of research according to Antonietta Silini, the Research Co-ordinator for the Centro di Ricerca E. Menni (CREM) at the Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero, one of the LifeSaver Project’s core research partners. She is also the Science Communication Coordinator at COST SPRINT Action – The International Network for Translating Research on Perinatal…
Carla Baldasso, EnginSoft’s Research and Development Manager, is the LifeSaver Project Coordinator. An engineer with extensive experience in research projects, there is perhaps no one better equipped than Carla Baldasso to share how this company specialised in Computer-Aided-Engineering (CAE), and is helping the LifeSaver Project.
