Family Planning with Your AI Nurse

An article this week on the adoption of artificially intelligent scheduling nurses has us pondering how the delivery room might change twenty years in the future. From conception to delivery, what does the future of childbirth look like?

Conception

Technology is already helping prospective parents monitor fertility cycles, track their health, and lessen the chance of passing on dangerous diseases. But while gene therapies could drastically alter the roadmap of the childbirth in the future, artificial intelligence’s role will be much more advisory. Imagine having a nutritionist on-hand to help you plan meals full of the vitamins your growing child needs, or having 24–7 access to advice about whether that cup of coffee you’re craving is a problem for the developing foetus. AI will work as a far more intelligent version of online forums, providing prospective parents with a constant stream of information and education.

Preterm Babies

There has been some improvement in the treatment of preterm infants, which has helped to increase their chance of survival. However, the rate of premature births is still globally increasing. As a result, this group of infants are most at risk of developing severe medical conditions. Many people believe that earlier detection of which pregnancies will be pre-term could help treat, or even forestall, those premature births, improving the health of children and reducing overall healthcare costs. At present, most methods of preterm birth prediction are subjective. However, a combination of artificial intelligence and electrohysterography is already being researched, which will provide a viable way of diagnosing true labour and predicting preterm deliveries.

To Caesarian or Not to Caesarian

In maternity care, quick decisions are often made about the most suitable type of delivery. There are guidelines for doctors to help make the decision, but those practice recommendations are limited and underused. A recent study found that caesarean delivery has been pursued in over 28% of pregnancies, which is statistically higher than should be medically necessary. Artificial intelligence in the future will identify obstetric factors that can be used to predict the most appropriate delivery technique. This will provide increased safety and effectiveness of specific practices.

In the Delivery Room

As that original article states, flow of patients in and out of rooms is very tricky in the natal ward, where patients are often rather ‘spontaneously’ in need of going next. While it seems unlikely that artificial intelligence will develop the bedside manner necessary to assist delivery room doctors with the actual patients (for the next few years, at least), they will be a force to be reckoned with for scheduling and ensuring delivery runs smoothly. This will make for a more relaxed process. Beds could even be automated, shuttling themselves to and from delivery and recovery rooms.

Of course, once your child is born artificial intelligence will continue to be involved in their live. Increasingly AI is ubiquitous to modern life, and this will only continue to be true. AL will help you monitor the baby’s health, size, and eating habits; it will make suggestions for the newest techniques in sleep management; and when your child is old enough, you will give them an AI of their own.

This is the future of childbirth. Looks pretty bright, doesn’t it?

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by Wren Handman. Sign up for Levianthan.ai’s weekly newsletter to get insights and news straight to your inbox.