Design and implementation of a virtual childbirth platform for teaching purposes and pre-clinical training

Childbirth is a natural phenomenon but is very complex and still little investigated. Nowadays, the obstetric/gynaecologist monitors the active phase of labour through vaginal examination, by attempting to understand the position of the foetus inside the mother’s womb, in terms of foetal head presentation, position and station. However, the examination results subjective and strongly dependant on clinicians’ experience. To provide a safe platform for training and improving physicians’ performance in obstetric procedures, simulators has been introduced in the clinical field since 1990s. The aim of the work is designing and implementing a virtual childbirth simulator platform for teaching and training in foetal head monitoring during the active phase of the labour. Specifically, a device, provided by several sensors (i.e., electromagnetic tracking system, IMU and textile matricial sensor), was developed for tracking the position, head orientation and contact points between the foetal head and the birth canal. Moreover, the platform has been provided with an intuitive interface, allowing the real time visualization of the childbirth simulation. Test sessions were carried out to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed platform. Expert clinicians performed a childbirth using the developed device integrated on a commercial simulator and a didactic and training value was confirmed