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Interprofessional simulation based education (SBE) improves core clinical skills and team training in obstetrics and gynaecology. In this innovative study, the introduction of an undergraduate interprofessional SBE program for teaching obstetrics and gynaecology skills in India was evaluated. The study attempted to evaluate the feasibility and benefit of the interprofessional skills training workshop in obstetrics and gynaecology, which was introduced for medical and midwifery students in a secondary level hospital in India. The program focuses on improving “hands-on” clinical skills and can be explained by the “skills acquisition theory”. Using a survey, participants rated relevance, pitch and confidence (on a 5-point Likert scale) and described the contextualisation and teaching of core clinical skills through the workshop using free-text. Descriptive analysis of quantitative Likert scale responses and thematic analysis of the free-text data was conducted and themes identified. Ninety-five medical and midwifery students attended the inaugural workshop, in a low-resource setting. The clinical experience in obstetrics and gynaecology across both groups was minimal, neither were they exposed to any prior SBE. Both health professional groups found the workshop useful, relevant and improved their confidence in performing vaginal examination and births. The key theme, which emerged from qualitative analysis, was “getting hands-on” experience. Other themes included learning by simulation without clinical time constraints, retaining the ability to make mistakes, bridging theory to practice, valuing interprofessional experience and ensuring equal learning opportunities for all participating professional groups. The advantages of interprofessional SBE, for medical and midwifery students, are reproducible in a low-resource setting, and may be be helpful for learning intimate clinical examination, obstetric procedures and team training.

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Background: The objective is to identify the risk factors of Meconium stained deliveries and evaluate the perinatal outcomes in Meconium Stained deliveries.Methods: This prospective observational study included those pregnant women who had completed 37 weeks of gestation, with singleton pregnancies with cephalic presentations and with no known fetal congenital anomalies. Among these, we selected 110 cases with Meconium stained amniotic fluid and they were compared with 110 randomly selected controls.Results: Regular antenatal visits were seen in 22.73 % of the cases while 77.27% cases had no previous visit. Majority of cases were primigravida and gestational ages of >40 weeks was seen in 55.45 % cases. 19.09% cases had meconium staining among pregnancies complicated with pregnancy induced hypertension, as compared to those among controls (5.45%). Fetal heart rate abnormalities were seen in 29.09% cases, and statistically significant fetal bradycardia was seen in cases. Caesarean section rates were nearly double in cases (54.55%). Poor perinatal outcome was found in cases as seen in results by low Apgar score (<7) at 1 minute and 5-minute, higher incidence of birth asphyxia, Meconium Aspiration Syndrome and increased NICU admission as compared to that among controls.Conclusions: Meconium stained amniotic fluid is more commonly associated with higher gestational age >40 weeks, pregnancy induced hypertension and fetal bradycardia, increased cesarean section rates, low APGAR score and higher incidence of birth asphyxia and NICU admissions. Meconium aspiration syndrome was associated with early neonatal death.

Background: Elevated Serum Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels are characteristic of most of the allergic diseases including asthma. Most of the asthma patients are allergic to inhaled antigens and chemical antigens, which lead to their sensitization and induce a state of hypersensitivity that is IgE mediated hypersensitivity reaction. The aim of this study was to estimate and compare serum IgE levels in childhood asthmatics and in normal subjects and to obtain the relationship between serum IgE levels and severity of asthma.Methods: A stratified sample of 58 patients within the age group of 5-15 years including 36 male and 22 female asthmatic patients and 58 healthy controls within the same age group were included in this study and classified according to GINA classification 2016. Serum IgE levels were estimated by using ELISA kit.Results: Mean IgE levels ranged from 163.82 IU/mL in normal subjects to 881.81 IU/mL in asthmatics. The mean values of Serum IgE levels in mild, moderate and severe asthmatic children were 625.25 IU/mL, 871.77 IU/mL, 1225.05 IU/mL respectively.Conclusions: High Serum Immunoglobulin E levels were found in childhood asthmatics as compared to normal subjects. Serum IgE levels were found to increase as the severity of asthma increased. The variability in each grade of asthma was very large so we could not find any statistically significant correlation.