Midwifery Lecturers Merel Schoemaker and Bahar Goodarzi

Last week I visited the Academie Verloskunde in Amsterdam to provide a train-the-trainer workshop for midwifery lecturers. The four universities in the Netherlands work together to teach a consistent curriculum across the country. Incorporation of physiological breech birth training into that curriculum was inspired by last year’s Teach the Breech 1st Amsterdam Conference. I was honoured that lecturers travelled from as far away as Groningen and Maastricht to attend the training, so they have a common understanding of how physiological breech birth is taught. Many of them have significant experience teaching breech themselves, so we will continue to learn from each other.

The train-the-trainer workshop followed a similar format to our RCM-approved Breech Birth Network study days, but we kept the focus on the mechanisms and manoeuvres to enable the midwifery lecturers to understand the new methods thoroughly in order to teach them to students. Midwifery lecturers already have such a deep understanding of anatomy and physiology, and I have never had so many great questions from one audience! Amazing engagement.

Midwifery Lecturers from the universities of the Netherlands

The Netherlands is a hotbed of breech activity and debate, from researchers such as obstetrician Floortje Vlemmix and midwife Ageeth Rosman, and obstetricians like Leonie van Rheenen-Flach and midwives like Rebekka Visser. Vaginal breech births have continued to be facilitated throughout the Netherlands, albeit at a diminished rate this century. Because clinicians have maintained the skill, a shift to more physiological principles of facilitation is not so seismic. A recent case report indicates such a shift is in progress.

Thank you to lecturers Bahar Goodarzi and Merel Schoemaker for organising the workshop and seeing me safely to the other side of Amsterdam on my bike after the training! I look forward to working more closely with them to develop a physiological breech training programme, appropriate for the Dutch context, incorporating the existing skills and knowledge of the very experienced obstetricians and midwives of the Netherlands.

Shawn

References

Wildschut, H. I. J., van Belzen-Slappendel, H. and Jans, S. (2017), The art of vaginal breech birth at term on all fours. Clin Case Rep. doi:10.1002/ccr3.808