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The Operative Births Parent Involvement Group meets quarterly to support and inform the development of UCL & WEISS research projects investigating surgical and interventional approaches to make birth safer and to improve outcomes for parents and babies.
"The Sensor Glove, designed by a team of engineers and nano-engineers, has special sensors, which help to detect a baby’s position (ie. which way the baby is looking) and to determine the safest way to deliver the baby. The use of the Glove would be a huge improvement in maternity care because at present vaginal examinations can be subjective and inaccurate, and lead to poor outcomes for both babies and birthing people" Vita and Selma, Members of the Operative Births Parent Involvement Group
The parents involvement group have been involved in this project from the early stages, they have met quarterly with researchers to support and inform the development of sensory glove, providing valuable insights based on their lived experiences of maternity, operative birth and birth trauma. They have worked directly with researchers through the development phases both online and in person. In this video members of the parents involvement group visited the lab to look at the glove, visit the laboratory and speak with the researchers in person.
Vita: ‘My own experience of childbirth is the focal reason why I chose to participate in the Operative Group Birth Involvement Group. Having been through several procedures at the end of a very long labour, which included ventouse, forceps and episiotomy, and a very long and difficult period of recovery, I was drawn to share my thoughts with other parents who had gone through analogous experiences, and clinicians and researchers who were keen to understand those events from the perspective of their patients.’
Selma: ‘It is fascinating to see the efforts and studies done to improve maternity services first-hand and very rewarding to potentially help to shape them by sharing our experiences and views. Every participant in the group had a unique birth and our feedback is very important to improve and steer the research in right direction.’
Transcript
On the 6th of March 2023, members of the operative Birth Parents group visited the UCL lab at Charles Bell House in Goodge Street, London. The group came to see and discuss the development of the new sensor glove that the team have been working on. The new sensor glove will be used to examine birthing people in labour. It has special sensors on the tip that will help the birthing team to work out what position the baby's head is in and which way it's looking
This will help them to determine the safest way to deliver the baby. Our group got to have a look at the way that it would work and to feel what it would actually be like on their own hands and to see how that might work in practise. We're at the lab and offices here in central London, and the group have had a fantastic opportunity
We've met with the researchers and the clinicians that have been making the sensor glove. They've talked to us a bit about um about the glove and how they're going to use it, but also about their own backgrounds and what's fueled their interest and their desire to work in this area. So it's been a really personal experience, I think for us all
Um, we first sat around and we talked about our own birth experiences and reflect. on how the sensor glove would have or could have impacted on those and and just about the human aspect of this. So I guess it's been really lovely bringing together that humanity and science, um, and for us all to be able to meet, to talk, to see that, to go down into the lab and see where it's actually being made, to hear about all sorts of engineering and science wonders that for many of us would normally be so so far out
world of our understanding. So I think it's really been an interesting experience for everyone and most importantly, as with all of our parents groups, it's about making sure that the people who have got lived experience of birth are there right in the heart of how we create and innovate new technologies. It's been so lovely having everyone here at UCL and been lovely to meet people in person as opposed to on Zoom, and it's been lovely to meet everyone together
Yeah, I think having having everyone this this kind of viral collaboration of of all the different people that are involved in making the sensory glove and for us to be able to see that and then have people with lived experience of birth kind of bringing it all together, it's felt really magical. So you guys have had different people come in, some midwives and obstetricians to. the glove, and this is the first time we've had obviously the parents group to come in
Um, why do you think, why do you think that's helpful for you guys as a team, having the parents and, and having all those different aspects of info. It's always useful working with parents because they offer a completely different insight than what we would ever think of. And also seeing the, the usefulness of how we can actually apply this and how much it would benefit people, um, that's also really, really helpful to see
Um. So what's interesting about being in here is actually like, you know, sometimes you watch movies and you see them doing different things, but being actually here in the lab and seeing the work it's actually done, it's really mind blowing. It's like surreal, makes it real, just like when you see the things and you're actually in the place where they make it, it's just, it's magic
It's unbelievable really grateful to be here. So am I. It was fascinating to see actually how the sensory glow is made, all the details, the background
It's very different from what we see on the screen at the meeting. There's loads of different um. Different disciplines working together to make it and it's just, it's amazing
Yeah, I find it also wonderful to see the collaboration between people who, you know, start off their studies in completely different disciplines as you say, and then to work towards that a common objective, um, and then to come up with something that's so like it's going to be so helpful. And it was, yeah, and also very emotional for us to go back to think about our experiences of birth and then to think how this can help in the future to, yeah, the people who are going to give birth and the babies and the moms. And it's exciting like they are making it now here and it's going to be hopefully uh something available all around the world, uh, that's thinking about it
It, it will change things. It will change the birth experience hopefully for many people and that's just amazing.
