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Digital Anatomy pp 325–342Cite as

The Road to Birth: Using Digital Technology to Visualise Pregnancy Anatomy

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Part of the Human–Computer Interaction Series book series (HCIS)

Abstract

Pregnancy is a time of profound anatomical and physiological reorganisation. Understanding these dynamic changes is essential to providing safe and effective maternity care. Traditional teaching methods such as the use of static cadaver specimens are unable to illustrate and give appreciation to the concurrent fetal and maternal changes that occur during this time. This chapter describes the development of the Road to Birth (RtB) a collaborative, multi-modal, digital anatomy program, aimed to provide undergraduate midwifery students with a novel, visual, interactive and accessible, pregnancy education tool. The RtB digital anatomy program provides users with an internal view of pregnancy and fetal development, spanning 0–40 weeks of pregnancy, up to the immediate postpartum period. Users of the program have the opportunity to observe, interact and manipulate detailed 3D models and visualise the growth of a fetus and maternal anatomical changes simultaneously. The program is inclusive of detailed digital fetal and placental models that display both normal and pathological birth positions. The models are accompanied by written educational content that is hypothesised to support both technical and non-technical skill development. The RtB program has been deployed and tested amongst two international cohorts of undergraduate midwifery students. Findings indicate that the RtB as a mobile application and as an immersive virtual reality program have the potential to be useful pregnancy education tools with further empirical testing underway.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The University of Newcastle Innovations team and Professor Sally Chan Head of School, Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health and Medicine, The University of Newcastle for support during this program’s development.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Midwifery Indigenous Health, Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia

    Donovan Jones & Shanna Fealy

  2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Michael Hazelton

  3. School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Darrell J. R. Evans

  4. Innovation Technology Resources Division, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Vendela Pento

  5. School of Creative Industries, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Zi Siang See

  6. Lecturer-Researcher Research Coordinator ACME: AP Research Cell Midwifery Science, AP University of Applied Sciences Antwerp, Midwifery Department, Antwerp, Belgium

    Luka Van Leugenhaege

Authors
  1. Donovan Jones
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  2. Michael Hazelton
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  3. Darrell J. R. Evans
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  4. Vendela Pento
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  5. Zi Siang See
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  6. Luka Van Leugenhaege
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  7. Shanna Fealy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donovan Jones .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Jean-François Uhl

  2. INESC-ID Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Joaquim Jorge

  3. INESC-ID Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Daniel Simões Lopes

  4. Department of Informatics, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal

    Pedro F. Campos

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Jones, D. et al. (2021). The Road to Birth: Using Digital Technology to Visualise Pregnancy Anatomy. In: Uhl, JF., Jorge, J., Lopes, D.S., Campos, P.F. (eds) Digital Anatomy . Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61905-3_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61905-3_17

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