How midwives support women during childbirth | Monash University
– Hello, my name's Kym, I'm a midwife and midwifery lecturer here at Monash University
Nursing and Midwifery. We'd like to take this opportunity to invite you on the journey
of Victoria's labour and birth, both from the commencement
of her contractions, through the journey to the
birth of her newborn baby, within the birthing simulation environment that we have here at Monash University. – Today, I want to show
you our favourite simulator at Monash Midwifery. This is Victoria, she's very cool. She actually will give birth to a baby. So we turn a button on, she goes through contractions, and then the baby will
actually be birthed.
So you'll go through the crowning, and then the catching of the baby. So it's really cool in
that you can experience the whole act of giving birth without actually having
gone on placement yet. And that often helps when
you do get on placement that you've at least had
a hands-on experience. And that's something that we like to prepare you with here at Monash. So what we're going to
do is assume a position that is semi-recumbent. So in this situation, that means that she's sitting
upright, a little bit. In reality, a woman may be
giving birth in any position, but we practise this one first. – Ideally, the position
for a woman in labour is the one that she chooses, and also one that supports
her in an upright position, and enables gravity to help her with the process of the birth of her baby.
– So when we're ready, what we'll do is get Victoria switched on. As you can see, she's already breathing and blinking, so she's got some cool features there. So what I want you to do is
glove up, get ready to go. We never know when she
might actually get that baby to the perineum, and then have a good visual
of what's going on here. In real life, you'll hear women begin to say that they're experiencing
pressure, that they need to push. – So many people think
that a woman's in labour because their waters have broken, and sometimes that is
the case, but not always. So whilst your caregiver
will want to hear from you, it doesn't necessarily
mean that you're in labour. The other more important things that tell us that you're in labour is that you start to get pains, or what we call contractions.
These might start low down in your tummy, or up high in your tummy, or in your back or down your legs. – Now that you see the head crowning, let's just place a little bit of pressure on the baby's head, that's exactly right. And then with the next contraction, that head's slowly going to emerge. So I just want you to keep your
hands close around the head as it's coming through.
That's perfect, well done. And you would be talking
this through with Victoria, so letting her know that you see her baby's head starting to come and that she's doing a
really fantastic job. Usually at this point, women
will feel quite intense pain, so it's really important that
we maintain that connection with the woman at this stage. – So options of pain
relief for women in labour is to be moving around, and keep active and well supported with the people that are there. Midwives can also suggest
some pharmacological measures if need should be. – And that's really normal
that it takes a little while, so Victoria simulates
that, those contractions. And in real life, what will happen is one
contraction may birth the baby's head, and then with the next contraction, you'll often see the baby turn,
which is called restitution, and then the shoulders will be born. So there we go, that's happening just now, baby's restituting.
And then as that baby's
beginning to birth, just move your hands
further down the baby's body so that you're holding
the shoulders in together, that can help avoid any
injury of the perineum. Good, and then that whole
baby should be birthed with this contraction, perfect. And then we'll bring the
baby up to be with mum and do some skin-to-skin. We encourage skin-to-skin, Hannah, for mothers and babies
straight after birth, because that's what regulates
the baby's temperature, it's blood sugars, and it's breathing, very important for those reasons, but it also produces a
hormone called oxytocin in both mother and baby
that helps with bonding, with breastfeeding, and also pain management for both of them. Because it has been quite a painful, stressful experience in the most part, and so very important that we get that baby skin-to-skin. We also will tend to keep the cord intact and that's so that the placenta that the baby's still attached to, can continue to feed the
baby with all of the blood and the nutrients that are left inside.
Once the placenta's pumped all
of that blood into the baby, through the umbilical cord, then we can clamp it and cut
it like you see in the movies. There's a lot of muscle memory in assisting a woman to give birth, and we say all the time that
it's like riding a bike, you're not going to forget. So when we practise these
skills over and over again, and then you get to utilise them in real life on clinical placement, you'll find that you've at least got that background muscle memory with you. So it should help with
your confidence levels. – So I hope you've
enjoyed this opportunity, joining us at Monash University, here in our birthing simulation.
And I hope this inspires
you to want to become a midwifery student and join
us here at Monash University..
