They will learn all birth scenarios with a simulation mannequin…

A new, state-of-the-art training application has begun for the Üsküdar University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Midwifery. To enable midwifery students to complete their high-standard education, a new simulation mannequin was added to the Midwifery Laboratory within the scope of the Scientific Research Project (BAP). With this simulation mannequin, which possesses human-like features, students are aimed to quickly acquire skills in pregnancy, birth, postpartum care, as well as newborn care.

Prof. Dr. Güler Cimete: “Students will be able to experience all normal and risky situations that may occur during pregnancy and childbirth in a laboratory environment.”

Prof. Dr. Güler Cimete, Head of the Midwifery Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, made statements about the newly added ‘Mother-Newborn Birth Simulator’ to the Midwifery Laboratory. She stated that through the new simulator, students will be able to experience all normal and risky situations that may occur during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods in a laboratory environment. Cimete added that the Midwifery Department laboratory has been further enriched with this newly acquired high-tech simulation mannequin, thereby enabling students to experience many midwifery interventions on the mannequin in a laboratory setting before encountering real patients, thus, they will be more successful in clinical environments and experience professional satisfaction by providing safe and high-quality midwifery care to women.

On the human-like simulator, there is also the chance for emergency intervention in sudden changes in the mother's condition during and after birth, as well as fetal distress.

Prof. Dr. Güler Cimete, Head of the Midwifery Department, stated that with the ‘Mother-Newborn Birth Simulator,’ students will have the opportunity to observe all normal and abnormal situations encountered in women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods, as well as situations in newborn babies requiring emergency intervention, through scenarios written and uploaded to the system by faculty members, thereby enhancing their professional knowledge and skills by performing appropriate midwifery interventions in a laboratory setting. Cimete explained that on the human-like mannequin, students will be able to determine the position and size of single or twin babies in the womb by performing Leopold's maneuvers in addition to monitoring the pregnant woman's vital signs, perform pelvic assessment with vaginal examination, monitor the fetus's progression and rotations in the birth canal, develop skills in normal vaginal delivery, breech birth, shoulder dystocia, placental delivery, identify cord problems, perform episiotomy incision and repair, perform postpartum uterine massage, and intervene in vaginal bleeding. Furthermore, it was emphasized that the simulation mannequin will facilitate students in developing many basic midwifery skills and shorten the training period. 

This advanced technological simulator enables students to detect sudden changes in condition that may develop in the mother and newborn during and after birth, as well as fetal distress, and acquire emergency intervention skills such as maternal and newborn resuscitation. In short, it allows even very rare case examples encountered in clinical settings to be simulated and brought to life in a laboratory environment, and for intervention skills in these cases to be developed.  

Research Assistant Ezgi Keskin: Our aim is to provide our students with conditions closest to a hospital environment. 

Research Assistant Ezgi Keskin from the Midwifery Department shared detailed information about the midwifery laboratory simulation mannequin, emphasizing that the mannequin creates a hospital environment for students in a laboratory setting. Keskin stated: “This mannequin was procured for the midwifery department within the scope of the BAP (Scientific Research Project). The mannequin's birth canal has characteristics very similar to human tissue, which allows students to feel a tissue similar to real human tissue during examination. Furthermore, on the mannequin, we can create risk situations for the mother during or after birth by adjusting the mother's respiration, pulse, and blood pressure to normal or higher/lower values.  

Instructors guide the mannequin from the computers in the simulation control room. Various scenarios can be pre-loaded onto the computers in the control room, and real-time programming can also be done. For example, the mannequin can be programmed to create labor contractions, simulating a woman in labor experiencing pain and groaning due to it. This allows the student to think about how to approach a woman in pain, what to do, and then perform these interventions. Thus, the student learns by experience, and the instructor can observe them from inside and record their applications,” she added. Keskin continued her statements: “The dark glass of the simulation control room allows the instructor to observe the student and guide the mannequin, and also prevents the student from getting excited by seeing the instructor, enabling them to make independent decisions and perform their applications according to the case loaded onto the mannequin.” 

Photo: Eda Keçeci / UHA