Countdown to Life:
The Extraordinary Making of You (2015), by the British Broadcasting
Corporation and The Open University
In 2015, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
partnered with The Open University to produce the three-part
documentary series,
Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making
of You. Michael Mosley, a British television producer and
journalist, hosts the documentary. Along with narrating animated
scenes of a growing
fetus in the
womb, Mosley meets with individuals
around the world who experienced mutations that can arise in the
womb. Introduced over the course of the three episodes, several
people share their personal stories of how their bodies did not
Management of
Myelomeningocele Study Clinical Trial (2003–2010)
From February 2003 to December 2010, researchers of the
Management of Myelomeningocele Study, or MOMS, clinical trial
compared the safety and efficacy of different treatments for a
specific type of
spina bifida, called myelomeningocele.
Myelomeningocele, the most frequent and severe form of
spina bifida,
is a condition in which the bony spinal column does not develop
correctly, which causes an opening of the spine, exposure of the spinal
cord, and formation of a small sac containing cerebrospinal fluid.
Myelomeningocele affects 3.4 infants per 10,000 live births in the
United States and is fatal in ten percent of affected infants.
Investigators in the MOMS trial aimed to find a more successful
Twice Born–Stories
from the Special Delivery Unit (2015), by the Public Broadcasting
Service and Trailblazer Studios
In 2015, the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, released
a three-part documentary series,
Twice Born–Stories from the
Special Delivery Unit, hereafter
Twice Born, that follows
several pregnant women and their experiences with fetal surgery.
Trailblazer Studios produced the film, which predominantly features
two women, although it includes the stories of many women. The two
main women are pregnant with fetuses diagnosed with physical
deformities. One woman’s
fetus is diagnosed with
spina bifida, an
incomplete closure of the fetus’s spinal column. The other woman’s
