The first 3D images of birth, from the inside.
For most of human history, childbirth has been felt but never seen. Using open-field MRI, we captured a baby's passage through the birth canal in real time — and turned it into three-dimensional models that are teaching us how birth actually works.
The Project
Obstetricians have always described birth from the outside — by touch, by ultrasound, by experience. Yet the two things that matter most, the maternal pelvis and the baby's skull, are exactly what ordinary imaging struggles to see through. IMAGINAITRE began with a stubborn question: what if we could watch a birth from the inside, safely, and measure it?
The idea takes shape
During his residency in Clermont-Ferrand, Dr Olivier Ami spends four years on the biomechanics of childbirth and on "virtual labour" simulation — work central to his medical thesis.
An international first
A team in Berlin publishes the first real-time MRI of a human birth, proving the concept feasible.
Before the Academy
Dr Ami presents the French work on birth simulation to the French National Academy of Medicine.
The French births under MRI
The IMAGINAITRE protocol is carried out: pre-labour scans, then — a first in France — imaging during active labour, with full 3D reconstruction.
From pictures to models
The team validates its own simulation models of childbirth built from the images.
The Science
An MRI is a magnet, not an X-ray: it uses no ionising radiation, which is what makes it suitable for a mother and her baby. IMAGINAITRE used a rare open-field MRI in a hospital where a maternity ward and the scanner shared the same roof — one of very few places on Earth where a birth could be imaged in almost any position.
A full team on standby
Obstetricians, midwives, radiologists, paediatricians and anaesthetists on call around the clock, so the imaging suite worked exactly like a delivery room.
A rehearsal scan
A few days before term, each volunteer had a calm first MRI, giving a "before labour" baseline.
During active labour
With an effective epidural and a reassuring heartbeat, the mother moved to the MRI table in about two and a half minutes and was imaged during active labour.
Short and monitored
Scanning never exceeded about fifteen minutes total, heartbeat watched throughout, an operating room minutes away.
From slice to sculpture
Flat MRI slices rebuilt into precise 3D surfaces (finite-element meshing): clean, measurable models of the baby and birth canal.
From model to force
The 3D meshes let us estimate the forces on the baby's head and map them in colour.
Is it safe for the baby?
MRI uses magnetic fields and radio waves, not radiation. The scanner is loud, but a baby cushioned in amniotic fluid receives only a small fraction of that sound. Sessions were deliberately short, contrast dye was never used, and the whole protocol was approved by a national ethics committee and France's medicines-and-health-products safety agency (ANSM).
Discoveries
The baby turns toward the placenta
During contractions, the fetus was seen rotating toward its own placenta — a movement never before described in the medical literature.
The skull moulds — and the forces are measurable
The images captured the moulding of the head as it descends; the 3D models map the forces pressing on the skull, point by point.
The mother's body, in motion
For the first time, changes in the maternal pelvic floor and perineum during descent could be watched and measured directly, not inferred.
A virtual birth you can rehearse
Each birth became a 3D model, so labour can be simulated, testing how a change of position might open a more favourable path — far more realistic than traditional pelvimetry.
Gallery
Real-time MRI · Sagittal engagement
A mid-sagittal dynamic scan during active labor showing the fetal head engaging the maternal pelvic structure.
Fetal brain · Coronal scan
Detailed coronal view of fetal cerebral structures as they descend through the maternal birth tract.
Fetal skull moulding · 3D mesh
Modeling the physical overlap and adaptation of the infant's cranial bones during transit.
Biomechanical stress model
Finite-element analysis mapping force vectors and stress distributions on the fetus.
Perineal ampliation (Radiology 2024)
Data published in Radiology detailing the dynamic mechanical expansion of the pelvic floor muscles.
Simulation · Posture strategy A
Evaluating how posture alter fetal pathways and minimizes delivery strain.
Simulation · Posture strategy B
Comparative analysis of pressure peaks and maternal pelvic floor stress in alternative postures.
Fetal brain · Sagittal structure
Dynamic sagittal details capturing cerebrum alignment as the fetus navigates the pelvis.
All images are fully anonymised and approved for publication under ethics and patient consent protocols.
Open Data Coming Soon
The images behind this research are too valuable to keep in one laboratory. We are preparing to release the IMAGINAITRE imaging dataset as open data — so engineers, clinicians and scientists everywhere can build on it to make birth safer.
Partnership with LaMcube, Lille
The Laboratory of Multiphysics and Multiscale Mechanics (Université de Lille · CNRS · Centrale Lille), in collaboration with Dr Tien Tuan Dao, whose research bridges clinical imaging and biomechanical modelling. Full details — dataset contents, anonymisation, and terms of use — will be published here.
About the Research
Dr Olivier Ami
Obstetrician–gynaecologist · Ramsay Santé, La Muette
Dr Olivier Ami is the author and principal investigator of the IMAGINAITRE research on real-time MRI of childbirth. From an idea born during his residency to the first French births imaged by MRI and the 3D simulation models that followed, his work aims to make the mechanics of birth visible, measurable — and ultimately safer for mothers and babies.
