Dead mother incubator

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

So what you're saying is that while giving the mother steroids to develop the lungs is necessary, if that were to be ongoing it could cause damage to the mothers organs which in turn would endanger the health of the baby? Or are there other health risks that laypeople wouldn't know about unless they were in that situation, in which case, can you give us a rundown? Might help people understand your point better.

Sure, no prob.

The administration of steroids is common to women who are in premature labor, specifically because studies have shown that you can help speed the maturity of the lungs of the fetus and improve, but not ensure, their outcome, morbidity and mortality.

When people are brain dead and on life support their bodies shut down. The only way to keep them alive is through ventilatory support and the administration of quite a few drugs to maintain, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation, perfusion of the kidneys, etc. These other drugs are the things that can affect the blood flow to the fetus, and in many cases affect the fetus directly. These direct and indirect effects can be detrimental to the fetus. Twenty-four and better forty-eight or seventy-two hours of treatment with steroids is better, but all of that is balanced against the fight to keep the body alive, esp if she is an organ donor.