Nahid & Zahra Head Lifting Maneuver As a Novel Technique for Resolving Shoulder Dystocia - Abstract
Shoulder dystocia (SD) represents an obstetric emergency that has potential
devastating effects on the neonate and mother. SD remains a serious challenge to
delivery teams. We introduced a novel technique called “Nahid & Zahra head lifting
maneuver” for resolving SD. With this SD delivery technique lifting of the fetus’s head
is done by an assistant, while is standing opposite the mother’s face upon the delivery
bed and bending forward. Simultaneously two other assistants for exerting Mc Robert’s
and Rubin maneuvers and one obstetrician for posterior arm delivery are needed in
this procedure. With head, lifting maneuver the space inferior the fetus’s head and
body is widening and can easily be used by the delivery provider for quickly fetal
posterior arm delivery, and faster resolving SD.
This technique has been successfully applied to 16 cases of SD with no apparent
complications to date. Age ranges of mothers were 31-42 years. Pregnancy ages were
37-43 weeks. Gravidity of mothers were 5-8, and 13 of them were diabetic (8 were
diabetes Mellitus and 5 Gestational diabetes). This procedure is very fast and takes
only 40-45 second.
Nahid & Zahra head lifting maneuver is a simple, effective and time saving method
for resolving SD. If our observations are confirmed in larger series, it could become a
part of the routine procedure for resolving SD.