An essential resource for your back pocket

Emergency Birth in the Community is brought to you by the same family that produces the UK national ambulance service guidelines: Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee (JRCALC) and Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE). This is no coincidence. This book has been specifically adopted from the official JRCALC guidelines and expands on many topics including maternal resuscitation, umbilical cord prolapse, shoulder dystocia and post-partum haemorrhage. The editors claim it is the essential resource for ambulance clinicians, midwives, GPs and all health professionals who come into contact with emergency birth—and I agree.

The book's target audience consists of staff in a community setting who may respond to an emergency birth. The editor cleverly groups these professions together by using the term ‘responder’. This is a term that paramedics can easily identify with and they appear to be very much at the forefront of the editor's mind when she put together this book as several references are made to equipment, drugs or training relating to UK NHS ambulance trusts.