Obstetric Errors: Sepsis and Shoulder Dystocia as Examples of Heuristic Thinking in Obstetrics

In this chapter we describe and classify various types of errors and mistake. After a brief introduction to the heuristic concept, we explain the clinical consequences of the errors and describe the behavioural theory of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Using real clinical cases of sepsis and shoulder dystocia (SD) we explain how to evaluate different clinical decision-making approaches, in light of the main behavioural theories. This will allow the reader to know some of the main errors that occur in the management of SD and sepsis and to avoid them. In fact, it is known that most of the errors in clinical reasoning are due not to incompetence or inadequate knowledge of the subject, but to human frailty, subjected to conditions of complexity and, uncertainty, and to the short time available.