There is considerable controversy over the diagnosis of birth asphyxia due to medicolegal reasons.

WHO estimates for global neonatal deaths caused by birth asphyxia are 29%.

Others have infections or suffered birth asphyxia.

Over this same period a particularly successful research effort showed that hypothermia is a highly effective treatment when applied to newborn infants following birth asphyxia.

Article: Correlates of birth asphyxia using two Apgar score classification methods.

These ideas flowed through the perinatal research community, producing a new belief that neural rescue after birth asphyxia should be possible.

In the baby, aspiration of meconium, anemia, severe pneumonia, low blood sugar and birth asphyxia have been associated with the disorder.

The leading causes of death in children under 5 can be attributed to prematurity, pneumonia, "other," birth asphyxia, and congenital abnormalities.

Brain hypothermia, induced by cooling a baby to around 33 C for three days after birth, is a treatment for birth asphyxia.

These results are not conclusive, but give confidence that the therapeutic effects of hypothermia following birth asphyxia are sustained into later childhood.

In the United States intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia was listed as the tenth leading cause of neonatal death.

Factors that predispose to epilepsy - for example, birth asphyxia, head injury - can help distinguish psychiatric illness from complex partial seizures.

Intrauterine hypoxia (IH, and birth asphyxia) occur when the fetus is deprived of an adequate supply of oxygen.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally, between four and nine million newborns suffer birth asphyxia each year.

The perinatal brain injury occurring as a result of birth asphyxia, manifesting within 48 hours of birth, is a form of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

Birth asphyxia may result due to prolonged labor, breech delivery in full-term infants; placental abruption, and maternal sedation in premature infants.

She is currently principal investigator on a Emory Global Health Institute-supported project to improve recognition of and response to prolonged labor and birth asphyxia in Bangladesh.

Such children may have suffered birth asphyxia, have oral-facial-palatal defects, pseudo-bulbar palsy or cerebral palsy, and so have poor co-ordination of facial and oral muscles.

Hypothermia therapy for neonatal encephalopathy has been proven to improve outcomes for newborn infants affected by perinatal hypoxia-ischemia, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or birth asphyxia.

Intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia can cause hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy which is cellular damage that occurs within the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) from inadequate oxygen.

Intrauterine hypoxia or birth asphyxia IH/BA was the ninth most expensive medical condition treated in U.S. hospitals by average hospital cost and resultant hospital charge.

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a condition that occurs when the brain is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply, and is most commonly observed in newborn babies due to birth asphyxia.

However a meta-analysis of all studies published in late 2009 included new data, in particular the TOBY trial, and this provided conclusive evidence that cooling reduces the adverse effects of birth asphyxia.

While HIE is associated in most cases with oxygen deprivation in the neonate due to birth asphyxia, it can occur in all age groups, and is often a complication of cardiac arrest.

The simplicity that attracted empyricists to cooling centuries ago now makes hypothermic neural rescue with accurate patient selection a potentially transforming therapy for low-resource environments where birth asphyxia remains a major cause of death and disability.