SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says neoprene can save the lives of women who are hemorrhaging due to childbirth.
Hemorrhaging accounts for about 30 percent of the more than 500,000 maternal deaths worldwide due to childbirth, nearly all in poor countries.
The results of a pilot study conducted in Egypt appear in the online edition of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Suellen Miller, director of the Safe Motherhood Programs of the University of California, San Francisco's Women's Global Health Imperative, directed the pilot study, which evaluated use of a non-pneumatic anti-shock garment, or NASG -- similar to the bottom half of a wetsuit.
Miller said the compression from the NASG shunts blood from the lower extremities and abdominal area to the essential core organs: heart, lungs and brain. Within minutes of application, a hemorrhaging woman can regain consciousness and vital signs will normalize.
"In our research, women who appeared clinically dead, with no blood pressure and no palpable pulse, were resuscitated and kept alive for up to two days while waiting for blood transfusions," said Miller.
