‘MAGGIE’: Ascension St. Vincent uses robotic mannequin for labor and delivery training

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - At Ascension St. Vincent, nurse educators use a unique tool to help their labor and delivery department stay up to date on their skills.

This tool is called Maggie, a robotic, pregnant mannequin.

Maggie is able to talk, breath and actually give birth.

Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist, Miranda Wahnsiedler, says it helps because “we have a patient who has blood pressures and vital signs where we can practice medication administration and assessments and following those protocols.”

Maggie has been around for over a year, but during the month of September, Ascension St. Vincent, created a program they called, Simulation September, to put her to use.

She’s used to simulate complications during child birth, like hemorrhages, high blood pressure and even seizures.

During these simulations, Maggie is treated as a real person so that doctors and nurses can practice the correct protocols if a complication were to happen.

“There’s a lot that we can do in real time with real patients but there’s’ times when were looking at more serious complications” said Wahnsiedler, “those sort of things need more attention and extra practice”

Wahnsiedler helps run these educational simulations. She says it’s helpful to practice these skills year-round so that doctors and nurses know how to handle any situation.

“When it comes to implementing them with a real person they’ve had the opportunity to practice, to ask questions, to collaborate with providers and make sure they’re doing everything they can to follow the evidence as closely as possible to achieve the best outcomes for moms,” said Wahnsiedler.

The hope is the more that nurses practice with Maggie, the easier it will be to notice warning signs before a serious complication occurs.

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