Car Mechanic Dreams Up a Tool to Ease Births
A car mechanic in Buenos Aires, Argentina saw a YouTube video about a simple technique for extracting a cork that had fallen into a wine bottle,, and then started thinking about other uses for this tool.
Jorge Odon started playing with a plastic bag and a doll, and developed the Odón Device. Using this simple and inexpensive tool, a birth attendant, even one with minimal training, slips a plastic bag inside a lubricated plastic sleeve around the baby’s head inside the birth canal, inflates it to grip the head, and pulls the bag until the baby emerges. Until now, the only devices in use to assist in vaginal delivery were forceps and a vacuum extractor, both of which can be difficult to use, even by an experienced operator, and can cause serious harm to the mother or the baby or both. To read more about the Odon Device and endorsement for its use, read the New York Times article (Nov 13, 2013) here.