Introduction: This paper aims to consider shoulder dystocia and the impact that this may have on both women and health care professionals. A variety of factors will be examined and discussed. Shoulder dystocia and risk factors: Shoulder dystocia is an obstetric emergency which requires specific manoeuvres to facilitate the birth of a baby's shoulders (Winter et al 2017). It is obstetrically recognised as a 'bony problem' and occurs when the baby's shoulders enter the pelvic inlet in an antero-posterior position, rather than a transverse or oblique position, resulting in the anterior shoulder impacting against the pubic symphysis (Sahrphillips & Hoover 2020). Shoulder dystocia is a time-limited emergency with a head to body delivery time of five minutes to minimise fetal demise (Winter et al 2017); based on this, it can be calculated that no longer than 30 seconds should be spent on each manoeuvre before trying a different manoeuvre and possibly repeating the sequence, if required.
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