• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Aug 13, 2009 - Page: 1D

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A New Roads obstetrician/gynecologist thinks the number of stillbirths in the United States could be reduced by educating mothers and their doctors on the detection of “umbilical cord accident.”

Dr. Jason Collins, who once delivered 200 babies a year in Slidell, moved to New Roads with wife Candace, a pediatric ophthalmologist, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Collins, who delivered his last baby in 2008, is a consulting obstetrician who devotes his time to stillbirth research through the Pregnancy Institute (http://www.preginst.com) and remote monitoring of  patients at home.

Collins points to the decrease in the number of infant deaths attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (sometimes called “Crib Death”) as a result of SIDS awareness.

Though not fully understood, deaths attributed to SIDS dropped following a campaign to put infants to bed on their backs rather than their stomachs.

The “Back to Sleep” campaign theorized that small babies with little control of their heads suffocated in their bedding when put down on their stomachs.

About 100 babies  are stillborn in the United States each day, Collins said. At more than 30,000 deaths a year, many of those deaths with no medical explanation, deaths from Sudden Antenatal Death Syndrome far exceed SIDS deaths, Collins said.

Based on research involving 1,000 of his own patients, Collins thinks it’s possible to save some fetuses, who’d otherwise be stillborn, with ultrasound pictures of the umbilical cord and home monitoring of pregnant women.

Cord accidents may take the form of a knot, some other compression or a problem connecting to the placenta, Collins said.

“You detect it clinically by changes in behavior,” Collins said. “The fetus could have hiccups daily, fewer kicks or you can have a high kick count which is a sign of hyperactivity. The baby’s uncomfortable, and that may be because of insufficient blood flow.”

Collins’ critics say fetal monitoring is important, but it’s not necessary to monitor pregnant women and their unborn babies at home.

Julia Leach, of Fort Collins, Colo., found the New Roads doctor’s Web site while researching stillbirth. Leach and husband Andy had a stillborn child.

“The monitoring program detected potential cord compression issues during the last few days of my pregnancy,” Leach said.