Listening to women's voices: the experience of of unplanned out-of-hospital birth in paramedic care in Queensland, Australia - BMC Series blog

Listening to women's voices: the experience of of unplanned out-of-hospital birth in paramedic care in Queensland, Australia - BMC Series blog

Belinda Flanagan

Dr Belinda Flanagan has been involved in various areas of health since 1990 and over this period has gained extensive experience in healthcare, emergency medical services and education sectors. Prior to her appointment with USC, Belinda was an Advanced Care Paramedic with both the NSW and Qld Ambulance Service and a Registered Nurse/Midwife with NSW and Qld Health. Belinda frequently collaborates with the Queensland Ambulance Service in guideline development and education in the area of obstetrics and neonatal resuscitation. Belinda has completed a PhD exploring the paramedic response to obstetric emergencies, this will provide recommendations for the management of emergency obstetric cases

Listening to women’s voices: the experience of of unplanned out-of-hospital birth in paramedic care in Queensland, Australia

While some women end up with an unplanned out-of-hospital birth due to fast labor and a lack of time to access care, other women make decisions to delay planned hospital care due to previous birth experience or interactions with healthcare professionals. The authors of a recent paper in BMC Emergency Medicine have published a new paper in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth exploring these decisions and in this blog post they discuss the perspectives of these women and of the paramedics who care for them and their own reactions to the narratives in the study.

Belinda Flanagan 20 Dec 2019

Paramedics managing out-of-hospital birth

In Australia, approximately 1,974 births, representing 0.7% of total births, occur prior to arrival at hospital each year. This population, although a small proportion of paramedic caseload, is associated with considerable perinatal mortality and morbidity and possesses factors that may complicate paramedic clinical management. While many births that occur in paramedic care are uncomplicated, paramedics are expected to use evidence-based guidelines to identify, manage, and refer patients with high-risk conditions or emerging problems related to pregnancy, recognize and manage a severely compromised pregnant patient, and provide appropriate care during the intrapartum and postpartum period