Andrea Galimberti: Day 2 opening address

Andrea Galimberti

Chair opening address

North of England Breech Conference, Sheffield

Day 2

Dr. Andrea Galimberti is the Clinical Director & Consultant OB at the Jessop Wing in Sheffield. Sally Freeman, a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, introduced him and noted that his most important unofficial role is that of midwife. 

Andrea began by noting that yesterday was a great day; it was very informative, and he learned a lot of new things. It got him thinking. Lawrence Impey showed us the facts about breech presentation: “the facts are facts and shouldn’t be disputed,” Lawrence said. With breech, people form very strong opinions, and they use those opinions to dispute the facts. Women listen to different opinions and believe facts only if they’re presented in the right way. Often their wishes aren’t represented by the obstetric community because of this wealth of opinion rather than a wealth of facts. We need to bring back a knowledge of the facts to the obstetric community.

If we don’t respect women’s wishes, we both fail the obstetric profession and go against human rights. All this shows how important this work is and leads us to today’s next session: experiences setting up breech services in hospitals in the UK and Europe. This will help us to bring on a system that allows women's wishes to be respected.