New Technologies to Dating Pregnancy at Birth

Abstract

The chapter provides a vision of new methods of pregnancy dating at birth to overcome the high costs of existing approaches or lack of access to the existing technologies. The authors have presented a literature review on recent scientific reports exploring novel technologies, such as those based on the newborn’s skin maturity assessment as machine learning models based on clinical data. The effortlessness of new approaches based on simplified clinical systems contrasting with molecular genetics and newborns screening analytes is discussed, even in scientific validation. Without the intention of an exhaustive or systematic review, we searched databases for reports concerning postnatal gestational age, prediction or estimate, novel approach, low and medium-income countries since 2015. Therefore, the authors did not compromise to offer a comprehensive picture of all postnatal gestational age methods. On the other hand, prematurity identification at birth remains a challenge in many birth settings, mainly in a scenario with scarce resources. Although postnatal pregnancy dating methods have strengths and disadvantages, this information is critical to recognize the risk of the newborn during the first hours of life, justifying technological investments.