Protecting the Unborn Instead of Killing Them

While the end result is positive, more protection for unborn children duringa car accident, the article does clearly show a slant. Note that with 2 exceptions the unborn child is described with the term fetus not a baby. Fetus is a term for a stage in the devlopment of a human being, like child, or teen. But the term has been twisted arround to mean something less than a human being by the "culture of death" in its promotion of abortion. & the last line gives another clue that this isn't really about protecting the child. (emphasis in article mine)

Researchers trying to protect pregnant drivers

By Sharon Silke Carty, USA TODAY
DETROIT — Women are driving longer into their pregnancies — often saving maternity leave until after giving birth — a lifestyle change that is leading to predictions of an increase in fetal deaths in car crashes. Researchers aware of the trends are working on computer models to help develop pregnancy-friendly safety devices.
Ford Motor-funded research at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest universities is near completion on mathematical models that measure how crash forces affect pregnant women and fetuses.
States are not required to report fetal deaths in data sent to the federal fatal accident system — some do, and some don't. But researcher Stefan Duma of Virginia Tech says reliable studies show from 300 to 1,000 fetal deaths because of car accidents each year.
Duma says the fatality rate of unborn babies in crashes is about four times the rate for infants to 4-year-olds. (The really big exception to the usual dehumanizing of the unborn chikl.)
"It's been studied, but just a little bit," Duma says. "People just don't understand the numbers, and there's no silver bullet to solving the problem."
Duma says the mathematical models are a step in the process and that the auto industry could be 15 years away from new technology to help protect fetuses.
There is now a crash-test dummy that simulates a pregnant woman (called MAMA 2B for Maternal Anthropomorphic Measurement Apparatus version 2B). Its uterine area is filled with fluid, and pressure on the fluid is measured.
But the biggest danger in a crash is placental abruption — the placenta tears from the uterine wall, causing bleeding for the mom and cutting off blood supply to the baby. Because there is increased blood flow to that area in pregnancy, there also is much higher risk of hemorrhaging for the mother after a crash.
The mathematical models simulate what happens to the placenta, skeleton and even the brain during a crash. Whether the models will suggest the need for pregnancy-specific seatbelts or some flexible system that works for all drivers is unknown.
For now, safety experts advise pregnant women to wear the lap part of a seat belt low over their pelvis, not over the soft belly, and to sit as far from the steering wheel as possible.
Steve Rouhana, senior technical leader for safety in Ford's passive safety research and advanced engineering department, says pregnant women should continue using seatbelts until answers are found. Many, he says, are scared to use seatbelts late in their pregnancies, which can lead to even greater injury.
He hopes the models will lead to "new restraint systems that may be able to protect women better than they do today," he says. "The seatbelt is the best safety device in the vehicle today, but it doesn't mean we can't make it better." (Protecting the woman is the goal, not protecting the child. The unborn child is only viewed as a potential source of harm for the woman, not to be protected in his or her own right.)