Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) is a program that was developed by the

American Academy of Family Physicians The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) was founded in 1947 to promote and maintain high-quality standards for family medicine, an offshoot of the classical general practitioner. It is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. AAFP is one of ...

(AAFP). This course helps

physicians A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, certified nurse midwives (CNM),

registered nurses A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to o ...

, and other health care providers involved in potential emergencies in the perinatal care of mothers. This course is important and even required in some hospitals for family practice physicians as well as a learning tool in most family practice residency programs.About ALSO – Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics – American Academy of Family Physicians
/ref> ALSO was developed by Damos and Beasley, from the Department of

Family Medicine Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary ...

at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

.Advanced life support in obstetrics course , American Family Physician , Find Articles at BNET
/ref> ALSO aims to decrease

morbidity A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

and

mortality Mortality is the state of being mortal, or susceptible to death; the opposite of immortality. Mortality may also refer to: * Fish mortality, a parameter used in fisheries population dynamics to account for the loss of fish in a fish stock throug ...

for both the mother and baby. ALSO does this by incorporating both

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...

and practical hands on workstations with lifelike mannequins.What is ALSO?
Topics include assisted vaginal delivery,

Doppler fetal monitor A Doppler fetal monitor is a hand-held ultrasound transducer used to detect the fetal heartbeat for prenatal care. It uses the Doppler effect to provide an audible simulation of the heart beat. Some models also display the heart rate in beats pe ...

ing, fetal

dystocia Obstructed labour, also known as labour dystocia, is the baby not exiting the pelvis because it is physically block during childbirth although the uterus contracts normally. Complications for the baby include not getting enough oxygen which may ...

neonatal An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

resuscitation Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders (such as lack of breathing or heartbeat) in an acutely ill patient. It is an important part of intensive care medicine, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emergency medicine. W ...

, management

premature labor Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 weeks, very early preterm birth is between 2 ...

, management of

postpartum hemorrhage Postpartum bleeding or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is often defined as the loss of more than 500 ml or 1,000 ml of blood following childbirth. Some have added the requirement that there also be signs or symptoms of low blood volume for ...

, along with

forceps Forceps (plural forceps or considered a plural noun without a singular, often a pair of forceps; the Latin plural ''forcipes'' is no longer recorded in most dictionaries) are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Fo ...

and

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

-assisted delivery. Participants must pass a written test as well as a practical hands-on case management of a birth (mega-delivery) incorporating many elements learned throughout the course. ALSO helps serve the same function as advanced trauma life support (ATLS) and

advanced cardiac life support Advanced cardiac life support, advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) refers to a set of clinical guidelines for the urgent and emergent treatment of life-threatening cardiovascular conditions that will cause or have caused cardiac arrest, ...

(ACLS) to help keep physicians who work with rural or underserved populations up to date on

evidence-based medicine Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". The aim of EBM is to integrate the experience of the clinician, the values of t ...

and curriculum. Although Canadian family physicians historically followed the ALSO course, the

College of Family Physicians of Canada The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC; French: ''Collège des médecins de famille du Canada'', ''CMFC'') is a professional association and the legal certifying body for the practice of family medicine in Canada. This national organiz ...

has also developed a similar program entitled Advanced Labour and Risk Management (ALARM), which serves the same purpose as the AAFP's ALSO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Advanced Life Support In Obstetrics Emergency medicine Obstetrics Gynaecology American Academy of Family Physicians Midwifery pl:Opieka perinatalna