Some babies experience problems at birth

Researchers from Hammersmith Hospital will use special neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to distinguish between potential causes.

Doctors believe problems at birth are usually caused by developmental problems during pregnancy or by a brain injury during delivery.

Brain scans can tell doctors what caused a baby's problems and help predict whether they will suffer long-term problems.

Babies who have had problems will be studied by Hammersmith researchers to see what kind of pregnancy their mothers had, how labour progressed and whether there were any interventions during the delivery.

They will be compared to healthy babies when they are between 12 and 18 months old.

Risk factors

Dr Frances Cowan, a neonatal neurologist at Imperial College and Hammersmith Hospital, who is leading the research, said scans could also indicate what kind of long-term problems a child may have.

Most parents find it very helpful to be given a clear idea of what the future holds Dr Frances Cowan

"Children with damage to just one side of their brain may do remarkably well.

"Babies have an ability to compensate for, or circumvent the damaged area to a greater extent than one would find in an adult who sustains a one-sided brain injury such as a stroke."

But she added: "If the scan shows damage on both sides of the brain, the child is likely to have problems; if the damage is extensive those problems will be severe and some infants may not survive.

"Although we can offer no cure in such cases, most parents find it very helpful to be given a clear idea of what the future holds as early as possible."

She said the study should help identify risk factors so midwives, doctors and parents could work together to manage the pregnancy, and try to prevent brain injuries occurring.

Mothers could be offered a Caesarean if they have a high-risk pregnancy.

Pinpointing problems

Researchers will also use MRI scans to monitor the development of premature babies' brains.

If they are born three months early or more, their brains are still developing while they are in the incubator.

Even when there are no obvious problems, premature babies' brains are less mature by the date they should have been born than they are in babies who have gone to full-term.

Most babies do not have serious problems, but some have low IQs and may have learning difficulties.

Dr Cowan said: "We are using brain scans taken sequentially from birth to try and pinpoint what the problems are.

"Several factors may play a role: notably infection, which is common in pre-term infants and may indeed be the cause of the pre-term birth, also steroid treatment used to mature the lungs, and nutrition - which is difficult to optimise in a baby that should still be deriving all its sustenance via the placenta."

The research is featured in the magazine Hammersmith Research.