Dealing with an emergency

Every year, I have to make sure I attend training on obstetric emergencies to keep my skills updated. Thankfully, the situations I’m trained to deal with are fairly uncommon but when they do happen, they can be very scary. I had my first experience of a true shoulder dystocia at a recent home birth. The 5 minutes it took to free the shoulder after the baby’s head was born and then the next 5 minutes spent resuscitating the baby felt like the longest 10 minute period ever. Thankfully all was well, but not an experience I would want to repeat.