[ozmidwifery] New Inventors birth seat

[Anne Clarke]

Dear All,   Labouring women in my practice, over 20 of them, tried this birth seat (although without the back part) and women have found it not so useful as they cannot lean forward or move on it easily.  Also if a woman has generous proportions they find it difficult to sit on it and many women find it difficult to reach down to grasp the handles and it limits women where they want to grasp for support.  Looking at the video from the New Inventors program the back part appears to limit women's movement too - although I have not used it in association with the chair.  As you all know some women lean far back (or forward) sometimes leaning forward with a contration and then far back in their supporters arms to rest inbetween contractions, and sometimes using a different position with each contraction with her supporter moving in unison to accomodate, the back on the chair in the video does not look like it appears to be as accommodating.   I am all for women choosing to use a birth stool/chair if they find it does not inhibit movement of choice but not one of my clients who have tried this chair wanted to continue to use it e.g. when offered a different type of chair/seat these were found to be more accommodating.    When quizzed at their postnatal debrief ALL of them said it was either uncomfortable - for various reasons - but what most of them commented on was that they could sit comfortably in it as they couldn't move around (forward/back).  So it appears if you want to sit back and straight to give birth it maybe not so useful to use.   I am not the only one in the practice that have found women have not liked using this chair and therefore it is gathering dust in the store room. We do have 2 other types of birth stool/chairs and find women happier with these less 'technical' choices.   Regards, Anne