Author Of 1 Presentation
OBSTETRIC TRAINING AND NEWBORN LIFE SUPPORT AT BIRTH: A SURVEY ON ITALIAN TERRITORY.
Abstract
Background
Approximately 10% of infants at birth require some assistance to breathe and 1% require vigorous resuscitation. As such, midwives need appropriate education and training on newborn life support (NLS) techniques.
Objectives
In this study, we conducted a survey on Italian territory about the correlation between obstetric education and the management of the neonatal resuscitation in the delivery room.
Methods
The study was conducted with a web survey based on 23 questions, given anonymously online through Google Drive platform.
Results
272 women aged from 19 to 59 years were enrolled (83% midwives and 17% midwifery students). 93% of them concluded a NLS course before graduation, while only 57% have repeated it afterwards once or more times. The midwives working in hospitals with neonatal intensive care units (NICU) experienced more involvement within the emergency neonatal resuscitation team than in other hospitals (hospital with NICU 79%, hospital without NICU 57%, private hospital 48%; p<0,001). Moreover, the midwives’ years of experience at work are much more related with the prompt execution of primary resuscitation maneuvers (more than 10 years of experience 74%, 5-10 years 48%, less than 5 years 30%; p<0,001). Power analysis showed an adequate sample size of the study population.
Conclusion
In spite of NLS techniques are mainly taught to near all midwives, only the hospital work within a NICU and longer experience at work are directly related with a greater involvement of a midwife in the neonatal resuscitation team.