Supporting birthing persons, their families, and those delivering maternity care safer, individualised and evidence based care, empowering individuals as they navigate the childbearing continuum, lies at the heart of maternity services.
This shared commitment, combined with a passion to achieve positive experiences for the families of Orkney, led to exploration of additional training opportunities for midwives and obstetricians within NHS Orkney.
Our physiology has long been based on childbirth being a normal, natural event, and with this in mind it was felt both appropriate and beneficial to introduce Biomechanics for Birth as a way to further enhance the care we provide.
Given the remote and rural location of Orkney, alongside the desire to ensure all midwives and obstetricians given opportunity to attend, a virtual approach was chosen and proved highly effective.
Our exceptional course facilitators, Molly and Lynn, delivered an engaging and interactive learning programme, ensuring strong participation despite the online format. Training explored physiology of birth and biomechanics of the pelvis through the intrapartum period, supporting earlier recognition of labour dystocia.
The training's focus was empowering maternity staff to recognise, confidently apply and teach evidence based techniques, to promote positive experiences for birthing persons and their partners, whilst potentially increasing rates of spontaneous onset of labour, labour progression, and decreasing need for intervention in cases usually labelled as 'failure to progress' or 'prolonged labour'.
Rooms erupted with laughter as staff translated theory into practice. Participants explored a variety of techniques including forward leaning inversions and rebozo sifting techniques, to promote optimal fetal positioning.
Our goal is to bring all staff together for further skill development and consolidation of learning – no doubt accompanied by continued enthusiasm and team building.
Whilst it is early days, these additional skills have already been applied to practice with feedback from birthing persons, their partners, and staff, being overwhelmingly positive and highlighting both physical and psychological benefits. We are confident that the impact of this training will continue to grow, benefiting many more families across Orkney.
With this in mind we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone at Iolanthe whose funding and support have helped make this possible.
