Risk-free learning for obstetricians and midwives using a childbirth simulator

This paper presents the advantages of an instrumented childbirth simulator, called BirthSIM, in the framework of training in obstetrics. This simulator has been developed to surpass the constraints linked to the traditional training in a childbirth ward. Simulator training is designed to complete the traditional training used in teaching hospitals. Such a training allows novices to acquire a beginning experience before training in a childbirth ward but it also allows instructors to improve the teaching gestures without constraints. A clinical study of the forceps blades placement gesture with several novices who trained on a childbirth simulator was conducted. The results clearly show the progress in the obstetric gestures of the novices after using the simulator