A new kind of training for obstetric residents: simulator training.

This paper presents work resulting from a collaboration between obstetricians and researchers. It shows the benefits from the use of an instrumented childbirth simulator for the training of obstetricians and midwives. This new tool allows to surpass the constraints linked to the traditional training in a childbirth ward. This simulator training is designed to complete the traditional training used in teaching hospitals. Such a training allows residents to acquire a beginning experience before training in a childbirth ward but it also allows instructors to improve the teaching gestures without constraints. A clinical study of the forceps blades placement gesture with several residents who trained on a childbirth simulator is made. The results clearly show the progress in the obstetric gestures of all the residents who have used the simulator.