Almost 80 anaesthetists, obstetricians and midwives from islands across the world have joined together online to discuss the challenges of providing high quality anaesthetic care for women in childbirth in a small island setting.
The obstetrics anaesthesia seminar was organised by Dr Graham Beck, Consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care at Guernsey’s Medical Specialist Group. It’s the fifth to be held since the inaugural one which he set up in 2021 for anaesthetists to learn from each other about patient care during Covid19.
That seminar brought anaesthetists from Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar together for the first time. Attendance at subsequent seminar has grown with colleagues from the Scottish Islands joining for the three most recent ones. The reach of the seminar has now expanded to the southern hemisphere with doctors and midwives from the Falklands Islands attending the latest one.
Dr Beck said: “A lot of work goes into organising these events, but it’s worth it because of the improvements in patient care that result from sharing best practice.
“There are particular challenges in a small island for obstetric anaesthesia. The birth rates is falling, yet at the same time childbirth today is more medically complex than in the past, partly because mothers are having children later in life or have additional health conditions like raised BMI, diabetes or hypertension.
“We learned about improvements in the way epidurals are delivered to give patients more control and we also discussed changes in practice to reduce the incidence of major bleeds during birth.”
Photo credit: Paul Chambers
