#79: The Latest Research on Fetal Pain (with John Bockmann and Bridget Thill, MD, MS)

Equipped for Life Podcast

In this podcast, two authors discuss recent research regarding fetal pain: John Bockmann, co-author of "Reconsidering Fetal Pain" (2020) and Dr. Bridget Thill, MD, MS, author of "Fetal Pain in the First Trimester" (2021).

Bridget and John graciously typed out a full transcript of this episode that includes a ton of links to sources of the factual statements they made in this episode.

Here's a link to the five slides Bridget Thill discussed, including working links to the sources in the footnotes: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/equippedforlife/Thill_Fetal_Pain_PowerPoint_slides_PDF_3.pdf (Opens PDF)

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:47 Background on fetal pain and "Reconsidering Fetal Pain" 10:47 Keys to this unlikely, productive collaboration 13:39 Fetal pain: Advances in understanding 16:30 Current science and treatment of fetal pain 19:47 Cortex needed for pain? 22:40 Are fetal responses to pain just reflexes? 27:10 How did we get fetal pain so wrong? 29:52 A lack of compassion or a lack of understanding? 33:30 Recognition of fetal pain 38:19 Correlation with behavior, not overreliance on hypotheses 41:02 Pain assessments are calibrated to patient response, not brain imaging 42:10 Correlation with clinical behavior 42:56 Specialized pain assessment tools for different stages of development 45:23 Fetal Pain 101 45:45 Slide 1: An Evolving Understanding of Pain 46:33 Slide 2: Development of Fetal Pain Pathways 47:36 Slide 3: Responses to Pain in Fetus & Extremely Preterm Infant