Physiological Breech Birth Study Day - Kettering General Hospital

This fully-evaluated study day for clinical skills trainers, obstetricians and midwives will provide an engaging and interactive update on professional skills to facilitate physiological breech births, planned or unexpected, and how to teach these skills to others. The focus is on collaborative, multi-professional working to improve the safety of vaginal breech birth using the skills of all maternity care professionals.

For practical questions about the event or venue, please contact Rebecca Rivers, Training Coordinator at [email protected]

Training will include:

* A research update

* Thorough theoretical and hands-on explanations of how breech babies journey through the maternal pelvis in a completely spontaneous birth (the breech mechanisms), enabling you to distinguish between normal progress and dystocia

* Hands-on simulation of complicated breech births and resolutions, using narratives and videos of real breech complications, to enable you to practice problem-solving in real time

* Models of breech care that work within modern maternity services

* One year's access to the online training course & video resources following the training

Please ensure you create an account in the OptiBreech Online Academy and access the free OptiBreech Evidence Base 2025 online course prior to attending the training.

Shawn Walker, RM, PhD is a clinical academic consultant midwife. She was an NIHR Advanced Fellow and Chief Investigator of the OptiBreech Trial, a multi-centre feasibility study of a new care pathway for women pregnant with a breech-presenting baby at term (https://optibreech.uk). She leads the multi-disciplinary team that delivers the Vaginal Breech Birth study day at the RCOG. She was a Researcher in Residence at Imperial College Healthcare Trust, a role that focused on supporting health care professionals to begin clinical academic career pathways. She was also an Honorary Consultant Midwife at Imperial. She has researched how to improve competence, confidence and safety in vaginal breech birth for over 14 years.

References

Walker S, Das S, Stringer K, et al. How safe is it to plan a vaginal breech birth with OptiBreech collaborative care?: analysis of cumulative data within the OptiBreech Multiple Trials Cohort. NIHR Open Res. Published online 2023.

Walker SI, Spillane EI, Stringer K, et al. OptiBreech collaborative care versus standard care for women with a breech-presenting fetus at term: A pilot parallel group randomised trial to evaluate the feasibility of a randomised trial nested within a cohort. PLoS One. 2023;18(11):e0294139. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0294139

Walker S, Spillane E, Stringer K, Meadowcroft A, Dasgupta T, Davies SM, Sandall J, Shennan A, Batish A, Davidson L, Das S, Magurova L, Haroun G, Meates C, Houghton G, Le Grys H, 2023. The feasibility of team care for women seeking to plan a vaginal breech birth (OptiBreech 1): an observational implementation feasibility study in preparation for a pilot trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 9, 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-023-01299-x

Dasgupta, T, Hunter, S, Reid, S, et al. Breech specialist midwives and clinics in the OptiBreech Trial feasibility study: An implementation process evaluation. Birth. 2022; 00: 1- 10.

Spillane, E., Walker, S., McCourt, C., 2022. Optimal time intervals for vaginal breech births: a case-control study. NIHR Open Res. 2022 245 2, 45.

Timmons, P., Wallis, V., Walker, S. and Alleemudder, D. (2022), Management of term breech presentation. Obstet Gynecol.

Mattiolo, S., Spillane, E., & Walker, S. (2021). Physiological breech birth training: An evaluation of clinical practice changes after a one‐day training program. Birth, birt.12562.

Spillane E and Walker S (2019). Case Study Supporting Continuity of Care Models for Breech Presentation at or Near Term. The Practising Midwife, December:36-37

More publications: https://optibreech.uk/publications/ https://breechbirth.org.uk/publications/

Host or Publisher Breech Birth Network