Okay I just don't get it and by the end of 2nd year you think it would have clicked

When we talk about descent whether it is 5th's palpable or here in NZ 0-4, I don't get how they intertwine. For example the presenting part is at station -1, what descent is that.

Please I am coming up to my final year and I just dont get it, someone help

TIA

SJ

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Have you checked out the station vid in the education section? the way it clicked for me was alot of practice and watching that vid.......

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Okay the way it works for me is if I'm really struggling to reach on VE then its -2 above i/s or if I can reach but abit difficult its -1 at the spines reach easy no probs can feel easil around head/cervix etc.. +1 and +2 are well on there way well +2 is basically sitting on perineum, thats how I do it-right or wrong? but it works for me.
On palpation we do how much we can feel of the head and basically divide it into 5ths (how cruel lol) so if you think you can feel alot of the head then we say its 4/5ths palpable or something along those lines x

Am i right in thinking that if it is 3/5ths or less than the head is engaged, or have i forgotten everything we did last week in uni?

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3rd year Student Midwife

I thought that it was how much fetal head you could actually palpate, so the less you are able to, then the more engaged the head is, so 4/5ths not engaged, anything less than 3/5ths and it is engaged.

Note to self, read notes later

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Bless you Mum & Dad x
Student Midwife 2007

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oh, confused..... brain hurts! lol.
I thought that 5/5 palpable, denifietly head is free from the brim.
4/5 palpable, the tip of the head has entered the pelvis and so is engagement.
Engagement as defined by the icle midwives' dictionary, let's have a look....
"The entry of the presenting part of the fetus, generally the head, into the true pelvis. A head is said to be engaged when its greatest presenting transverse diameter, the biparietal diameter, has passed the plane of the pelvic brim...."
Does that make things any clearer? I have to say, that definitions of engagement differs in a lot of texts actually.

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3rd year Student Midwife

yup, deffo having probs grasping this...

I get the theory, just don't get the practical assessment of it.

I asked my mentor and she says it is a comparitive thing,m so I'll need to do another 18 0000000 before I get it.

I find Ve's hard, and obv is the fetal head is very low that is obv, but cannot assess where fetal head is in relation to spines.


Advice please?

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4/5ths palpable is engaged, but just not deeply engaged.
2/5ths palp is deeply engaged and so on
....or thats what i think anyway!!
5/5ths is free or not engaged
x

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no, I get that.

It's above or below spines in relation to VE, how to estimate it.

I can assess a high head, or ballottable on VE, or a very low head say +3
but -1 etc difficult for me to determine,

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