Missed our Facebook Live event with Fernandez Hospitals? Watch the recording here:
PMET student Arunarao Pusala receives her training certificate in Karimnagar
This month I am in Hyderabad, India, visiting Dr Evita Fernandez and UK Consultant Midwives Indie Kaur and Kate Stringer. Today at 5pm IST (that’s 11.30 GMT), we will be having a Facebook Live discussion on Breech Birth in India. This will be followed by hands-on workshops on the 12th and 19th in Hyderabad.
with Senior Midwives Theresa and Jyoti
The Fernandez Hospitals are at the forefront of compassionate maternity care on a large scale in India. The Stork Home facility has been beautifully designed and rivals some of the best midwifery units in the UK. But Dr Evita and her team of doctors and midwives are very ambitious. They want to revive vaginal breech skills so that women can confidently choose this option. How will this work in Hyderabad? Join us for a discussion.
Midwives and doulas support women together in the beautiful Stork Home facility in Hyderabad
From Arunarao: “My special thanks to dr Evita ,lndie mam Kate mam and Shawn mam for the opportunity to participate in BREECH BIRTH WORKSHOP at karimnagar.i am so panic about breech presentation and breech birth before I come to professional midwifery training, know iam very excited to assist the spontaneous and assisted breech birth,because now I came to know breech also has its own mechanism and always always we have to respect those mechanism and iam aware of the manoeuvres to apply whenever it’s needed.thank you all of you mam iam so blessed to have a teaching faculty like you.” Thank you Arunarao — you really got it!
Learning shoulder press in Montreal with Isabelle Brabant
As physiological breech practice gains acceptance, guidelines are changing to reflect this change in practice. One of the questions those updating guidelines often ask is: What is the evidence? For example, what is the evidence for the shoulder press manoeuvre we teach in Physiological Breech Birth study days?
To answer this question, we have to consider what level of evidence underpins breech practice in general. To my knowledge, no breech manoeuvres have been tested in randomised controlled trials. A recent Cochrane Review looked at ‘Quick versus standard delivery’ for breech babies and found no reliable studies to inform practice.
Image from Louwen et al 2017, Does breech delivery in an upright position instead of on the back improve outcomes and avoid caesareans? Open Access, click on image for full report. Artwork by Chloe Aubert
Observational studies that contain clear descriptions of the methods of management used in that setting reported alongside perinatal outcomes contain one form of evidence. A problem with observational studies is that even when ‘classical methods’ are reported, the meaning of that expression varies between settings. So studies from Canada, for example, are not necessarily generalizable to settings in the UK because standard practice varies between the two continents. A notable exception is the study of outcomes associated with upright breech birth reported by the Frankfurt team (Louwen et al 2017), in which a very clear description of the ‘Frank’s Nudge’ manoeuvre is provided, alongside excellent perinatal outcomes associated with upright maternal positions.
Another type of evidence is the support of a ‘responsible body of similar professionals.’ This is related to the Bolam test for clinical negligence in English tort law (Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee), which holds that, “there is no breach of standard of care if a responsiblebody of similarprofessionalssupportthepracticethatcausedtheinjury,even if thepracticewasnotthestandard of care.” In our research with 13 obstetricians and 13 midwives who had attended a self-reported average of 135 breech births each (Walker et al 2016), 73% of those participating agreed or strongly agreed that health professionals attending upright breech births should be competent to assist by:
sub-clavicular pressure and bringing the shoulders forward to flex an extended head; and
pressure in the sub-clavicular space, triggering the head to flex.
Additionally, 86% agreed or strongly agreed that an essential skill was:
moving infant’s body to mum’s body, so that infant’s body follows the curve of the woman’s sacrum
This research avoided the use of names such as ‘shoulder press’ and ‘Frank’s Nudge’ in favour of descriptions because not everyone uses the same terms, or refers to the same actions even if they do.
Evidence for manoeuvres also comes from evaluations of training programmes, both breech-specific and obstetrics emergencies courses. In our review of the effectiveness of vaginal breech birth training strategies (Walker et al 2017a), we found no published studies demonstrating an association between any training strategy and improvement in perinatal outcomes. The evidence base for the PROMPT training programme, widely used in the UK, comes from a study that did demonstrate an association with training and a subsequent reduction in low 5-minute Apgar scores and HIE (Draycott et al 2006). But that study questionably excluded outcomes for breech births, and because of this the breech methods in PROMPT cannot be said to be evidence-based, although the programme’s overall approach of multi-disciplinary working and clear communication remains important.
Most obstetrics emergencies training programmes have been evaluated at the level of change in confidence and/or knowledge. Our Physiological Breech Birth training programme, which includes shoulder press, has also been evaluated at this level in published research and demonstrated good results (Walker et al 2017b).
Finally we have the most recent RCOG guideline (Impey et al 2017), which states: “Thechoiceofmanoeuvresused,ifrequiredtoassistwithdeliveryofthe breech,shoulddependontheindividualexperience/preferenceoftheattendingdoctoror midwife.”
This Tuesday, 1 March 2016, Breech Birth Network travelled to Portsmouth again. The guest speaker was lovely doctor Ms Arti Matah, who spoke about an obstetrician’s view of vaginal breech birth, and led a lively discussion around whether the breech team / care pathway model might work for Portsmouth. Watch this space! I am incredibly impressed with the commitment Portsmouth midwives have shown to developing sound breech skills to support women who choose to birth their breech babies actively.
The skill which captured the group’s imagination most was how to resolve a situation where the head is extended and impacted at the inlet of the pelvis. My research suggests that identification of optimal mechanisms is a core skill for practitioners attending breech births. Therefore our approach to teaching this skill is:
Identification of optimal mechanism — The aftercoming fetal head normally rotates to the oblique/transverse diameter as it enters the pelvic brim, just like the cephalic-presentation head does when engaging.
Identification of deviation from optimal mechanism — In this complication, the fetal head is pinned in the anterior-posterior diameter, with occiput anterior, over the maternal symphysis publis, and chin or brow on the sacral promontory. The bottom of the fetal chin is felt like a ‘bird beak,’ pointing towards the sacrum. The maxilla bones are difficult/impossible to reach, so flexing the head using the usual techniques will be a challenge.
Restore the mechanism — See below.
The RCOG guideline suggests delayed engagement in the pelvis of the aftercoming head should be managed using one or both of the following techniques:
Suprapubic pressure by an assistant should be used to assist flexion of the head. Given our understanding of the head as impacted at the pelvic brim and our goal of restoring the mechanism by rotating the head to assist engagement, we suggest that the goal of suprapubic pressure should initially be to encourage this rotation. This mirrors the understanding we have of suprapubic pressure to resolve a shoulder dystocia by rotating the impacted shoulder off the symphysis pubis. Forcible pressure on an impacted fetal head is unlikely to be beneficial for the baby.
The Mauriceau-Smellie-Veit manoeuvre should be considered, if necessary, displacing the head upwards and rotating to the oblique to facilitate engagement. We use a doll and pelvis to explore why this elevation and rotation prior to re-attempting flexion is necessary. Watch the video below to see this demonstrated.
When a woman is birthing her breech baby actively, we facilitate the head to enter the pelvis using the same principles. Watch the video below, where Midwife Olivia Armshaw is teaching how to intervene in the case of an extended head at the inlet, when the woman is birthing on hands/knees. In this video, the midwives are discussing how maternal movement – in this case, the woman shuffling her bottom back towards the midwife slightly – helps to elevate the head off the pelvic inlet to facilitate engagement, a technique we learned from the midwives of Sheffield. The principles – elevate, rotate & flex the head – are the same.
Thank you to the Practice Development Team at Portsmouth for organising the day. And thanks to the following midwives for assisting with the day:
Claire Reading, midwife in Somerset, who shared her breech experience gained working abroad, and facilitated one of the hands-on stations
Olivia Armshaw, midwife from Gloucester, who facilitated one of the learning station and presented on the process of developing a breech team in her local area
Tess McLeish, midwife from Lewisham who helped the day run smoothly
Our one sadness on this study day was that we were not joined by any of Portsmouth’s obstetric staff, aside from Ms Arti Matah, who needed to leave early because she was good enough to present at the study day following a night on-call. Across the UK, midwives are trying to engage their obstetric colleagues in a discussion about how to improve things for breech babies and their mothers, and we really need more doctors to come to the table for that discussion to result in a service which is as safe as possible.
Shawn Walker, Olivia Armshaw & Jenny Hall
BONUS was meeting and relaxing with Midwife Jenny Hall in Portsmouth after the study day!
— Shawn
Further Study Days can be found here when they become available. View our Training page for more information.
Feedback from the Study Day:
“the group work was excellent Overall I thought the day was was a good balance of theory to practical”
“very interactive. realistic rather than textbook. real life experiences.”
“perfect study day. Interesting and kept my attention all day!!!”
“visual with the film clips and hands on with the doll and pelvis. Was very good to see normal and abnormal films and great discussion with colleagues to share experiences and what to do in that situation.”
“I also thought Shawn’s attitude to breech was very refreshing. I half expected it to be a bit like “you can have a vaginal breech no matter what”. this was not the case. She had a very safe and sensible approach.”
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