PLAINS TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Doctors say there are some medical scenarios that have traditionally been hard to train for, and that includes the business of having a baby.
Many different scenarios can occur during childbirth, and Geisinger just invested in a lifelike robot mom and baby to help train for them.
Victoria is an obstetric simulator that can be programmed for various birth scenarios.
Dr. Marcel Favetta introduced Victoria to members of an OB-GYN team at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre.
Dr. Favetta calls Victoria "big time." This, he says, is what bigger hospital systems use to train their birthing teams.
"We're trying to train our doctors, nursing staff, PAs, our midwives about a lot of different scenarios that come up," said OB-GYN Dr. Manny Arreguin.
Dr. Arreguin says most of the time, everything goes well in a delivery room, but Victoria allows them to better plan for the times that don't.
"We can begin to prep for, we can begin to plan for, and we can, more importantly, train often for, so we're not expecting that scenario. Every six months, every month, we can plan for those scenarios frequently," said Dr. Arreguin.
Victoria's multiple sensors are meant to give officials as lifelike a situation as possible. They can start IVs, take blood pressure, check heart rate, and even walk the team through steps they'll need to think about during a real-life delivery.
"In obstetrics, the only thing that's really important is that time is of the essence, and the fact that you can train over and over again makes it really beneficial," said Dr. Favetta.
Victoria will be traveling throughout Geisinger's hospitals in the northeast, including the one in South Wilkes-Barre and at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton.