Group 3: How to teach physiological breech birth

At the 2016 Normal Birth Conference in Sydney, Dr Andrew Bisits said, "Each breech birth was a goldmine for learning about normal birth." Building on this premise, this workshop looks at how lecturers and clinical educators... [ view full abstract ]

At the 2016 Normal Birth Conference in Sydney, Dr Andrew Bisits said, "Each breech birth was a goldmine for learning about normal birth." Building on this premise, this workshop looks at how lecturers and clinical educators can incorporate new understandings about breech birth into their curriculum, and how doing so will influence students’ understandings about physiological birth overall. The 2017 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ new guideline on the Management of Breech Presentation introduced support for upright maternal birthing positions, but the shift to effectively supporting active maternal positioning involves more than getting the woman off her back. In addition to new manoeuvres, the safe support of physiological breech birth requires a change in thinking from a model of ‘prediction and control’ to one of ‘relationship and response.’ Therefore learners are taught to recognise, respect and restore normality, that is ‘normal for breech.’ Those attending this workshop will participate in identifying ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ in a series of birth videos to experience how pattern recognition can be built up using such videos. They will also have an opportunity for hands-on learning of new manoeuvres which work effectively when women birth in upright positions. The workshop will also involve the audience in consideration of the psychosocial environment of physiological breech birth, how this influences safety, and how future research might measure this aspect and its impact.