Scottish Normal Labour and Birth Course
Background
The Scottish Normal Labour and Birth Course has been developed as part of the Scottish Multiprofessional Maternity Development Programme (SMMDP) - an evolving programme of courses designed to meet the needs of healthcare professionals involved in the delivery of maternity care.
The Course has been developed and organised as part of the SMMDP in an attempt to ensure midwives and other maternity care professionals have the knowledge and confidence in supporting women in labour to achieve a normal birth. This is one of the prime functions of a midwife but requires specific psychological, physical, technical knowledge and skills. Despite this being central to midwifery practice, many midwives and other maternity care professionals work predominately in environments where higher levels of intervention are the norm and they have had to become knowledgeable and proficient in different skills and consequently are less confident supporting women in a low-risk setting.
Promoting normality was seen as one of the core competencies for all professionals in maternity care identified in the ‘Overview report’ from the Expert Group on Acute Maternity Services (EGAMS) (Scottish Executive 2002).
The range of core skills required mainly by midwives but relevant to all professionals to keep birth normal as possible are:
- Being confident to provide intrapartum care in a low technology setting
- Being comfortable to use embodied knowledge and skills to assess a woman and her baby as opposed to using technology
- Being able to let labour 'be' and not interfere unnecessarily
- Being confident to avert or manage problems that might arise
- Being willing to employ other options to manage pain without access to epidurals
- Being solely responsible for outcomes without access to on site specialist assistance
- Being confident to trust the process of labour and be flexible with respect to time
- Being a midwife who enjoys practising what the participants call 'real midwifery'.
Promoting normality also includes the use of available evidence to support care (one-to-one care in labour). (EGAMS 2002, p.44)
The Scottish Normal Labour and Birth Course (SNLBC) has been developed and organised by the Scottish Multiprofessional Maternity Development Programme (SMMDP) in an attempt to ensure midwives and other maternity care professionals have this knowledge and the associated skills.