Overview of techniques to manage shoulder dystocia during vaginal birth

Anastasia Bothou; Dimitra-Maria Apostolidi; Panagiotis Tsikouras; Georgios Iatrakis; Aggeliki Sarella; Dimitrios Iatrakis; Panagiotis Peitsidis; Aggeliki Gerente; Xanthoula Anthoulaki; Nikolaos Nikolettos; Stefanos Zervoudis

doi:10.18332/ejm/142097

Overview of techniques to manage shoulder dystocia during vaginal birth

Eur J Midwifery. 2021 Oct 20:5:48. doi: 10.18332/ejm/142097. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Midwifery, School of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Health Sciences School, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece.
³ REA Maternity Hospital, Athens, Greece.
⁴ National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Shoulder dystocia is an obstetric emergency which is unpredictable and complicates approximately 0.5-1% of vaginal births. This article discusses the risk factors and the associated fetal and maternal complications, while it is also an overview of techniques and algorithms to handle shoulder dystocia.

Keywords: McRoberts’ maneuver; Wood’s maneuver; axillary traction; delivery of the posterior arm; interventional delivery; shoulder dystocia.

Publication types

Review