Distractions During Critical Phases of Anaesthesia in the Obstetric Theatre

Introduction Accidents in aviation have been attributed to distractions in flight crews at critical times. This led to the sterile cockpit rule and pilots refraining from all non-essential conversations and activity during critical phases of flight.1 Take off and landing can be considered analogous to the critical phases of anaesthesia and has been looked at in the general theatre setting. We decided to look at distractions during critical phases in the obstetric theatre environment.