Aug. 3, 2006 — A robot capable of simulating the process of giving birth to a baby will give student midwives at Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K. practical experience with delivery.
The birthing mother robot named Noelle is a full-size computer-programmable simulator designed to reproduce hundreds of different births, including those with such complications as breach deliveries, caesarean sections, and premature births, in real time or at an accelerated speed.
The simulator will help students better prepare for and cope with potentially life-threatening situations that may not crop up for years in a clinical setting.
"We're providing a very safe environment for students to learn about how they need to effectively work in a real world clinical situation," said Linda Lang, Acting Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at Sheffield Hallam University.
Designed by Miami, FL-based Gaumard, Noelle was recently added to the university's simulation facilities, which include a home environment ward, operating theater, and radiography room, where undergraduate and postgraduate students study health and social care.
In the past, students learned life-saving techniques on inanimate dummies that did little more than lie there.
But Noelle and her unborn baby can be programmed to have a range of physiological responses, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. Real blood can even be drawn through a vein.
During the delivery, healthcare students can monitor the vital signs of both. The baby can be programmed to have a number of complications, such being born premature, which require the students' attention beyond the delivery.
"I felt more confident after training sessions. You actually see what you're doing has worked, even though it's a dummy," said Laura Butler, a staff nurse in the gynecology department at the Royal Hallamshire Sheffield Hospital in the U.K.
As a student, Butler and her classmates practiced on other robots at the university, including a simulated adult man and a baby.
Practice makes perfect, or at least more prepared. The key to Noelle and other simulators is the robots can be run through the same health problems over and over, giving each student a chance to contribute toward a final healing.
