UNCG Is First In The World To Use New Birthing Simulator

The University of North Carolina-Greensboro's nursing school has unveiled its new high-tech, full-body childbirth simulator.

The News & Record of Greensboro reports the School of Nursing gave professors a glimpse of the mannequin SimMom on Wednesday. The model is designed as a teaching tool to provide UNCG nursing students with realistic experience with labor and delivery.

The molded plastic female mannequin comes with a simulated 6-pound newborn, the placenta and an umbilical cord, and can simulate routine births and births with complications. The wireless mannequin is produced by Laerdal, a Norwegian medical equipment maker, and accepts medications, an IV and a catheter, and a patient monitor shows its vital signs.

UNCG previously used an older simulation model, but bought the first model off Laerdal's assembly line, a $45,000 upgrade.