As we prepare our funding bid to scale up OptiBreech care around the UK and evaluate it in a stepped wedge cluster trial, we have invited NHS sites to formally express an interest in collaboration. We are pleased to share some of our collaborators and the reasons they are joining this trial.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Lead: Joselle Wright, Head of Midwifery
“We are a smaller DGH with 3700 births, smaller units often do not get the opportunity to participate in these amazing research studies. This would be a great opportunity for our women.”
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust
Lead: Dr Olusegun Ilesanmi, Consultant Obstetrician
‘Research within our Trust is important as this enables us to ensure we provide up to date evidence based safe care, with Women & their babies at the centre. The Opti Breech Study promotes informing Women about their options and to plan their care with them rather than making decisions about them, as well as improving our expertise, knowledge, and staff development. We look forward to giving Women within our care the opportunity to be part of the Opti Breech Study’
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Lead: Charlotte Gibson, Consultant Midwife
OptiBreech Team-to-be a the RCOG, May 2023
‘This is an exciting opportunity for us to support women’s health research which will positively impact those who provide care, the service we are able to offer and ultimately optimise health and well-being outcomes for those we care for. All with the added and far-reaching benefit of growing and strengthening our clinical research culture and capabilities within our service, community and beyond. It was from women’s and families lived experiences that led us to embark on setting up a Breech Birth Faculty. Our aim is to build the capabilities and confidence within our workforce to support safe and personalised care for those who have a breech baby at term. Collaborating with the Opti Breech Trial will be fundamental in achieving this aspiration.‘
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Lead: Claire Church, Consultant Midwife
“We would like to get involved in Optibreech so that we can offer a comprehensive, standardised service to our women and birthing people with breech babies which ensures that they are all counselled in the same way and given informed choice regarding their options. We also want to provide our staff with the skills and competencies to support our women and birthing people with their choices and feel confident in doing so”. – (Clare Church. Consultant Midwife)
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
Lead: Kirsty Farrington, Sharon Gowans and Julie Woollaston – Research Midwives
‘We are really excited to be involved in this research! It is a great opportunity to not only work towards delivering evidence-based care for women but also to develop skills and build confidence within the whole maternity workforce.’
NHS Lothian, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Leads: Rosemary Townsend and Andrew Brown, Consultant Obstetricians
Wirral University Teaching Hospital
Lead: Consultant Midwife Angela Kerrigan
It will be fantastic to be involved in the Optibreech trial as it will offer additional skills to our staff to enable us to provide an enhanced service to women who present with breech presentation at Term through the Optibreech collaborative care pathway. This is really a exciting trial to be involved in that has the potential to positively influence the care of women with babies presenting breech at Term.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Lead: Consultant Obstetrician Fatima Abuamna
OptiBreech 
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