Friday, February 6, 2009

Quick update on labor and delivery

Last night was my one and only night I had to experiance a day in labor and delivery. It was really great in some ways and a little boring in other ways. I know I only got one veiw of it, but some of the time it was fast pased and exciting but the rest of the time was a lot of waiting around. One nurse would have one laboring mother, so if the mother was progressing slowly then really, your just monitoring her contractions and fetal heart rate on the monitor in the nurses station. I think I prefer something a little more fast paced. If I'm going to be working 12 hour shifts. I want to be busy and have the time fly by.
Ok, so my first experiance was right after we got there, their was a C section going on and a friend and I had to decide who got to go in because they would only let one. She ended up letting me go after much debate about, you go, no you go, no it's okay you go. Any way, I got in and although they had taken the baby out already, I got to watch them sew up the uterus and the perineal lining which was still sitting on top of her stomach. Very neat! Placenta looked great, and she only lost about 600 ml of blood. Baby was beautiful, 5 pds or so and so precious. I watched another student there on her preceptorship give the vitamin K shot and put antibiotic eye ointment. They did the apgar on the baby, 8/9 , very healthy. It was a great exprience.
The next birth I saw, the gal was getting her epidural, the anesthesiologist let me watch up close, wow that is a big needle, and she was starting to say she felt a lot of pressure almost like she had to push. Well, she had just been checked and was only 4cm. He layed her back down and hadn't evan had a chance to push the drug in yet, when all of a sudden there was head appearing and the baby was coming out. Of course nothing was set up yet, so the nurse called everyone in and they worked as a cohesive unit to get the room set up in about 3 min. The nurses were amazing. Doc ran in and got there just in time. All was good, baby was healthy and beautiful and it was an amazing thing to watch.

3 comments:

Linda's World said...

Wow, it does sound exciting. Julie had H & M by C-section you know. I could have gone in for both but decided to stay just outside the room & take pictures when they brought her & baby out. I got pictures that Hebert didn't get. (He was suited up & in the room). Nothing more tender than the birth of a healthy baby. Love you! Aunt Linda

Carin Diaz said...

I heard that L&D has very slow and very busy moments. Like working in most units, working there can be very unpredictable.

may said...

L & D is extreme. boring when slow, really intense when busy. your post positively brought me back to my student years :)