Hello, Claire.
The topic of my PhD research is competence and expertise in upright breech birth. One part of this was a Delphi survey involving an international expert panel of doctors and midwives who work in various settings (in and out of hospitals). The
results are very relevant to the topics you are considering. Some of them are in submission, but I will mail you off-list with more information.
Increasingly in the UK, breech clinics are being set up for similar reasons. Where these are most successful, they involve a multi-disciplinary team approach and some professionals who are on-call, who debrief and learn from the births together.
This ensures that a majority of breech births are attended by someone who is both experienced and prepared, and enables a team of professionals to develop their own competence and confidence by attending a critical mass of breech births, individually and collaboratively.
A confident and experienced core team in turn supports education and mentorship for the wider team.
The facilitation of breech births involves many translatable skills, but also complex pattern recognition which is only really acquired and consolidated in the context of actual births. In my opinion, supportive mentorship from experienced professionals
is more important than attempting to train an entire service team in new skills using simulation strategies, although of course a good foundation in theory and principles of practice is important for all to share.
I will send you more information off-list.
Kind regards,
Shawn
Hi everyone,
The
New Zealand College of Midwives has organised a two day forum on breech birth in collaboration with the Royal Australia and NZ College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, with a view to increasing interdisciplinary discussion and skills around vaginal breech
birth. We currently have variation in practice around breech presentation at term across our maternity system due to differing levels of experience and comfort with breech birth, and are looking to find ways of standardising our approach to care in NZ. We
are developing a session on what a hospital-based breech birth service would ideally look like and what needs to be in place to facilitate it. We already have several ideas, and are now interested in whether any such services are running in other hospitals
and health systems internationally, to use as models for our discussion.
Could
you please email me with any details or information you think would be of use? Fine to email me directly off the list.
Claire MacDonald
Special Projects, NZ
College Of Midwives
