A big 'ol pile of Sh*t

First I want to say I love my job: taking care of labor patients, helping new mothers learn to care for themselves and their babies. But, I hate the people running the show. Maybe hate is a strong word. I am very unhappy with their decisions. I've mentioned that I work a weekend option: work 50 out of 52 weekends a year, no holidays unless they fall on the weekend. Which means that occasionally, there will be a year I have to work Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New Years day. That sucks, but it's part of the deal. Plus, all the other years, I don't have to work those holidays. I also work one day during the week. Every shift I work is paid at time and a half. That's the perk. There is an option where I could only work on the weekends and not do the weekday. Well, the schedule through the holidays came out and guess what? They am scheduled Thanksgiving night and Christmas night for my day during the week. Technically, those aren't the holidays on night shift. The night before is the holiday. So they didn't schedule me for the "holiday", but they did screw me over. As a regular employee on nights, if you work the eve, then you don't work the night, and vice versa. So both nights are treated as the holiday, but only one technically the holiday. I said something to the day shift charge nurses who did the schedule, and all I can do is find someone to work for me. Right. Who is going to volunteer to work the night before and the night of? What else sucks is that the other weekend option person who does the extra weekday, didnt' have any changes to her schedule request, and I was in the group whose schedule request should be honored first this time. Mine was not only changed for the holidays, but they made three other changes. And I only work one freakin' day during the week! I made sure the two who did the schedule know that I was not happy and if this was how it was going to be, then why should I work the weekday when I don't have to. To that, one said "Well, it's your job". I then reminded her that I could easily switch to the other category. It's just some crap. I feel like I'm being punished for working the extra day. I may seriously consider dropping that day after I come back from maternity leave. Or since it's just a regular day, doing a request off. I'm sure I'd be called in at least once a week if I did drop the day. That is time and a half also. The other nurse who does the weekday said she's been looking for a reason to drop the weekday and said she would have one if they didn't change my schedule. So, really, they are screwing themselves in the long run because they may lose their 2 most experienced night shift labor nurses from 2 shifts during the week.

The good and the bad

Out getwaway to visit friends this past weekend was a lot of fun. it was nice to catch up on everything going on in each others lives and just hang out like old times. Every time we hang out with them, we end up wishing that we lived a lot closer or could get together more often, but a 2-2 1/2 hour drive makes that difficult. I also managed to survive another weekend with the inlaws without much hassle. Had to put my foot down about my mil not sleeping in bed with the kids, not telling Jacob that he doesn't need to nap anymore (he needs that nap), and not touching my belly without asking just because "that's my grandson." My response to that was "Well, it's my body, and if you think you are entitled to touch me because that's your grandson, why don't I give you a glove, take my pants off and let you feel do a vag exam and feel him directly." The baffled look I got was priceless. Yes, it was a little over the top, but I got my point across.

Work this weekend wasn't too bad Saturday night. I spent 12 hours watching someone do nothing all night. Last night was a different story. I had another "first" last nihgt. We had just enough patients to give us the perfect amount of work. Then a call from ER came that someone was down there with decreases fetal movement. Now some people I work with thing "okay, no biggie, it's just a decreased fetal movement", but not me. It's either going to be nothing , or it's going to be very bad. A lot of times you can tell by looking at the patient, face before you even get them into a gown because they know deep down if the baby is gone. I had to take this patient because the other nurse was in the middle of something. So, I put on my jacket and head in. I spent about 8 minutes looking for the heartbeat and nothing. You still hope that maybe you just aren't geting the monitor in the right place. So I call the doc and let her know the situation and that I'm not getting a heartbeat. It takes her only 6 minutes to get to the hospital to do a sono. And believe me, it felt more like 6 hours. The sono confirmed no cardiac activitiy. She was 32 weeks pregnant. It was absolutely heartwrenching. I've never had someone come in for this and not be able to get a heartbeat. The waiting and hoping that maybe, just maybe it's okay, but really knowing deep down that it's not is one of the most helpless feelings I have ever experieced. I just pray this family finds the comfort and strength they need to get through this.

Final Getaway

Tomorrow, husband and I are going up to see some friends for the night. This is the couple who is responsible for introducing us. Mike was husband's roommate and Julie was mine. They have a Halloween party every year, and it is this weekend. I unfortunately won't be able to go because the party is Saturday night and I couldn't get the weekend off, but we're going to hang out tomorrow night. Husband is staying the extra night for the party. This will probably be the last night away until after the little bean is here. I'm somewhat worried about sleeping at their house. I get up to empty my pea-sized bladder about every 2-3 hours at night. I just hope I don't wake them up everytime I get up. My parents are taking the kiddos overnight tomorrow, and against my better judgement, my in-laws will be staying here at our house Saturday night while I work and Sunday while I sleep. I'd prefer if the kids just stayed with my parents, but his parents just invited themselves down that weekend and husband said it was okay. His mom wants to see the kids in their Halloween costumes. I told my husband that they could come the follwoing weekend as we'll still have their costumes the weekend after the holiday, but to no avail. I'm sure everything will be fine, but I just don't trust my mother-in-law. She undermines me every way she can and, oh, there's the drinking thing. If my sister-in-law was going to come, I'd be okay because she can babysit both the kids and the alcoholic, but she's not coming. Maybe my father-in-law will keep an eye on her. We'll see.

4 year old insight

The other morning right after the kids woke up, my son asked me a question I wasn't quite prepared for. Let me just preface the question with this: I am not a morning person. I never have been and never will be. That's why night shift agrees with me so well. It takes me a good 30-60 minutes to be fully functional and with it cognitively when I wake up. I'm grumpy and don't like to talk, but I've had to learn to do this after having 2 kids, one of which is a morning person. In college, my roommate and I had the same class schedule (same major) and she wouldn't speak to me until I had spoken first. Just to give you an idea of me in the morning. Back to my story. The kids and I were eating breakfast and Jacob asks me, out of the blue, "Mommy, why can't I go see God now?". Um, uh oh. There's me, half awake with a very loaded question. I stumbled through, telling him he has to live here for awhile before he can go see God, that Mommy wants him to stay here for a long time and that God decides when we go. He then said "but Clara, and the baby and you can come too, Mommy, and Daddy, too. Can I go now?" I can't remember exactly what I said after that due to my morning brain, but he quickly got bored with me and went back to his cereal. How do you answer a question like that? Honestly, I'm not sure even if he had asked me when I was fully awake that I would have done much better with that question.

A good weekend

Had a beautiful delivery this weekend. First time parents, Bradley method (can I just say I really love the Bradley method?). She came in at 6 cm, progressed seemingly easily to 10 cm in 2 hours, pushed for about 5 and delivered a beautiful baby boy. I did "baby care" so mom was able to do skin to skin contact immediately after birth (instead of having the baby taken away for an assessment as soon as the cord is clamped, like some of our nursery nurses do if they do baby care), and man did this baby nurse like a champ. I'll tell ya, the people who take the Bradley classes really do very well with labor. You can barely tell they're in labor. If I couldv'r followed my own advice and trusted my body to do what it can do, I think I would have loved to have taken the Bradley classes. But, it's too late for that, and like I said, I'm a wuss and I think I would doubt myself. I really didn't know too much about the Bradley method when I had my first baby either. Anyway, it's been kinda nice. We've had a run on patients delivering without epidurals, pitocin or internal monitors. I just wonder how long it will last.

Work and the Potty

The last three nights, work has called, asking me to come in and work. I felt a little bad, but I didn't go in. I know that at times, it just gets crazy, but part of the problem this week was avoidable. We have mandatory call hours we have to take. When it started this summer, it was supposed to be a short term thing, but I doubt it goes away. We have so many 4 hour blocks on each schedule that we have to take call for, but not everyone is doing that. So those of us who do our time are still getting called when its busy to come in in addition to the call we've already taken. Of course the people who don't sign up for all the call hours don't come in on blind call in. I'm not sure how these people will be reprimanded. I mean, they can't very well fire them when we need the staff. Threatening their annual raise won't do anything because our annual raises are pathetic to begin with. I'm sure this isn't an isolated problem at my hospital, but man it sucks. I usually go in when work calls, but sometimes I just want my time off. I still work as many hours as all the other people. I just do it over 3 days instead of 4. I think they forget that sometimes. And not to use it as an excuse, but I am pregnant. I don't want to work 6 days a week.

We've been trying to potty train Clara, and man it's just not working. Jacob was easy. We just took his pull-ups away and put him in underwear. He has had manybe 5 accidents total since we did that. It was sooo easy. And people say girls are supposed to be easier. But, nothing is working with her. She'll pee most times when she sits, but still goes in her pants. We tried the same tactic we used with Jacob and she just pees/poops anyway. We tried reward, talking up getting to wear big girl underwear. I've even tried asking her to sit on the potty every 45-60 minutes. That didn't work because she gets tired of me asking and refuses to sit on the potty. I had high hopes of having her out of diapers before the little bean arrives, but I don't think it's going to happen. Sigh. Maybe she'll decide she's ready before she goes to kindergarten.

My views on c-sections

Today I had another appointment and I had hoped to get out of some of the NST's that Doc had mentioned last appointment. Didn't happen. I'll have a NST every week starting in 2 weeks until 36 weeks, then twice a week. Which is better than 2 a week starting at 32 weeks. Oh well. At least I tried.

I've been doing a lot of cruising around on-line and man, I can't believe the attitudes some people have about c-sections. I understand that an operative delivery isn't the ideal, I dont really like c-sections and there are probably too many c-sections done. Elective c-sections seem ridiculous to me. Why have your abdomen cut open for no reason? And I admit that I felt a bit cheated when I had my c-section, but all that really mattered in the end was that my daughter was alive and healthy. If it came down to it, I would let them cut me open without any anesthesia if it meant saving my baby. And my favorite type of delivery is the unmedicated, no intervention birth. Our bodies were made to do that. Women give birth out in the middle of rice paddies, without any doctors, nurses or hospitals or prenatal care. But there are some people who take it way too far in my opinion. People who come to the hospital and refuse to let us intervene at all, regardless of how the baby is doing. If you don't want any interventions regardless, why are you at the hospital? I don't have this picture of a perfect birth that I must have in order for me to feel complete as a woman, or to bond with my baby. I know what kind of birth and labor I want, but if that doesn't happen, I'm okay with that. I'm probably gonna piss some people off here, but which is more important? A healthy baby or your perfect birth? Some people get so wrapped up in what they want, that they forget the real reason they became pregnant. To bring a healtly child into this world to love. There are legitamate reasons for c-sections. Babies have been saved because of c-sections. Mother's lives have been saved because of c-sections. No one should feel like less of a woman just because she had a c-section. And no one should look down on women who have had one, or think she is less of a woman. A mother is a mother regardless of how she gave birth. A baby is a baby regardless if he/she was pushed out of a vagina or pulled out of an abdomen. I guess I think people should be thankful for what they have, instead of only regretting what they lost in this case. I love both my children, and felt equally attached to them, regardless that one was born vaginally and one was not. I did miss out on holding my daughter and nursing within that 1st hour when they are wide awake and checking out the world, and sometimes I wonder if I really needed a c/s, but at the same time, I love her as much as my son. And I'm glad she's here, healthy and alive. I never cried over not getting to labor and deliver her. Ok, there's my rant on c-sections. I feel better now. Let any tongue lashing begin.

Relaxing, planning and remembering

Monday night I went into work, but got to come home after 2 hours. It was kind of nice. I don't usually like to be "flexed" and put on call, but it hasn't happened for a long time, and honestly, now is a good time to have a bit of a break. The only bad thing will be when I have to go back to work Saturday after being off for basically 5 nights. I was there long enough to hear about a sad situation. A 17 year old gave birth to a baby. Mom has a mood disorder and attempted suicide several times, the first time at age 9. She seemed to have a lot of family support, but come to find out, her mother has only supervised visits with her niece, and her stepdad cannot have any contact with his niece. This patient lives with them. And the probable father is a registerd sex offender. I dont know how this situation will play out, but it doesn't seem fair that this little innocent baby was born into this sad mix. Between cases like this, the pregnant teenageers and homeless pregnant, I can't help but wonder why there can possible be people out there who would make great parents but aren't for reasons out of their control. It's God's plan, and I'm not supposed to understand I guess. I just have to take care of my patients, make sure that when the mom and baby are discharged that they will be cared for and try not to pass judgement as it's not my place.

If anyone knows me, they know that I love making lists and being prepared. Doesn't mean that I am incredibly organized, but I try. Back in college when my roommate and I would make our almost weekly weekend trip to visit our boyfriends (now husbands) at a campus 1 hour away, we would sit in class on Thursday and make a list of what clothes and accessories we would be wearing for the weekend. We would then paint our nails that night, pack our bags according to our lists so we could leave straight from class. After having kids, I'm not quite that anal retentive about lists, but as close as I can be with 2 preschoolers. Now that I have the baby's room set up for the most part, I'm able to move on to more planning. The day I ended up delivering Clara, I had planned on cooking several meals and freezing them so we would have decent meals while we adjusted to 2 kids. But, I obviously never got to do it because I went to my appointment and didn't come home until 4 days later. So I'm going to try again. I'm not sure what I'm going to make though. I plan on making a pan of lasgana, and a batch of italian beef. But beyond that I'm not sure. Anyone have any recipes that freeze well?

This past week on October 15, was a day to remember all the babies that families have lost. This Saturday we have our annual Walk to Remember. It's nice to go and show respect for the families, but also to see former patients and see how their lives are going forward, if they've had children since. I also walk in memory of my niece, Mirabel, who was stillborn at 39.4 weeks December 1, 2003. My sister-in-law went into labor, didn't realize anything was wrong until they got to the hospital and couldn't find a heartbeat. She had called me to be her labor coach and I was on my way and didn't find out until I walked into their labor room and saw my brother-in-law crying and saw the blank fetal monitor. It was the worst feeling in the world. I can't even imagine the pain parents feel when I remember how my heart broke that day. Mirabel would have been 5 months younger than my son and man, did we have plans for these children. Every year on the day she was born, they bake angel food cake, light a candle and say a prayer for her. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are just now at a point where they plan on starting to try again. So here's to all the babies that have gone on to be with God before us - you aren't forgotten.

29 weeks

29 weeks:

27 weeks:

21 weeks:

Quite a difference 8 weeks makes! I'm really glad I decided to keep a record of my waistline progression this time. It's quite fun seeing how this little guy is growing. I really wish I had done this with my first two pregnancies. Sadly, I have very few pictures of me pregnant with Jacob and Clara, especially Jacob since he was my first. I was funny I guess about having pictures of me when I was pregnant with him. And I got really large, but I don't have a good picture of my belly. I have I think maybe 5 pictures, and I'm sitting in all of them so you don't get a good shot. To all of you pregnant ladies out there, here's my advice: Let the pictures be taken. You can't go back after it's over, and you will regret not having good pictures. Especially important: get that last belly shot at the hospital or shortly before you go.

Irritating

This weekend at work was like most - either really busy or really slow. Saturday it was like we had a revolving door with outpatients - all of them were due in December. I would no more than get one admitted, assessed and discharged and another would be on her way up. Three times I heard the phone ring at the desk as I was giving discharge instructions and it would be ER with another patient. I did a total of 6 outpatient discharges. Out of the 6, only 1 really had anything going on and it was only a UTI. One patient came in because she had a few contractions here and there all day, hadn't felt any for awhile, but wanted to make sure everything was okay. She asked me how far along I was and we actually had the same due date. She asks me "And you're still working?". Um, yeah. One patient thought she was having contractions at 30 weeks, but after about 45 minutes, she realized it was only gas. I didn't ask how she figured it out :) The others thought they were having contractions, but were not. I think I probably was having more contractions and back pain than they were, and I was taking care of them. I guess it's better that people come in to make sure everything is okay rather than waiting until it's too late, but man, I can't believe what brings some people in. Sometimes I think people want to use their pregnancy to get out of work, etc. A nurse I work with is due 4 weeks after me and she's one of those. She is not high risk and has had no problems so far with this pregnancy. She asked 2 girls to turn her patient for her since she's pregnant and can't. I had just finished boosting my epiduralized patient up in bed, but she couldn't turn hers?. I realize lifting should be limited, but seriously. What's she going to do if she has an emergency and needs to turn a patient or push a bed down the hall for an emergency? Is she going to wait until she can get help? "Sorry, your baby is crashing, but I can't do anything to help because I'm pregnant, so let me go get help". I'm really not unsympathetic and there are times pregnant women can't do these things. It's the one's who milk it for all its worth that get a bit annoying. Sigh. Maybe I do too much. Maybe I'm just not doing this pregnancy thing right and could be using it to get out of working too much. Hmm.....

Home improvement and expanding girth

I've been pretty busy the last couple days. We're in the process of trying to get our house insulated before winter sets in, but before we can do that, we have to replace all the old wiring. Otherwise, putting insulation on top of the old stuff would create a fire hazard. We thought we'd have all the rewiring done, but, alas, no. Husband is having a buddy come over tonight to loosen all the floor boards up in the attic. Sounds like great fun. Then we'll have our dads come spend a couple days just working on the wiring and laying the insulation down. Since they won't let me help with any of that stuff, I got to go buy the insulation. Boy was that fun. Nothing gets a Menards employee's attention like a pregnant woman standing in the insulation aisle. It was a bit ridiculous. I had to hunt someone down after 3 guys passed me up. Then the guy I cornered treated me like a moron. Now, I have thoroughly researched insulation and knew what I wanted and was very clear about this. He kept questioning me until I told him I knew what I wanted and if he wouldn't help me get the number of rolls I needed, than I would do it myself. So, after all of that, I bought insulation, and when I got home, I made a call to the store manager to complain. Hey, don't mess with a cranky pregnant woman whose attic is being torn up. I also got the baby's room painted, put up shelving in 3 closests in the bedrooms and moved the fouton out of the baby's room down into our computer room (with help, of course). And finished 6 loads of laundry! I feel accomplished. Tonight, while the guys are having fun in the attic, I plan on setting up the nursery, but we'll see if the kids let me do that.

Within the last week, I've definately grown in girth. My co-workers kept telling me, up until this past weekend, that I don't look that big. I felt they were lying, but whatever. This weekend though, people were saying the opposite. One girl asked how much longer I had. I said "I'm 28 weeks". That's when she smiled and said "I thought you were about 34 weeks". Another said "You're going to be HUGE!" when I told her I was only 28 weeks. Gee, thanks. Really, I dont care. Everyone remembers the size I was when I delivered Clara. I really didn't get big with her, but I got HUGE with Jacob. And I think that's how this one is going to be. Plus, I don't really have much control over how big my belly gets, my weight I do have control over, but if Isaiah wants a big uterus, that's what he'll get. Just as long as flips out of being sideways sometime soon!

The power of denial

One of the things that really gets me wondering about how strong the mind can be is the woman who comes into the hospital, complaining of abdominal pain and vag bleeding and finds out then that she's pregnant and in the 3rd trimester. We had someone this past week deliver a 33 week baby and claimed she didn't know she was pregnant. Come on now. Ok, ok, I know there probably are some cases where the woman really didn't know, but I think most times its denial. Usually, the women who don't know are larger to begin with so don't notice the growing waistline so much, have babies that just don't move that much, or have a tilted uterus which I heard makes it hard to feel fetal movement. Having been pregnant 3 times, I can assure you that I knew and everyone who sees me knew I was pregnant. The girl's roomie brought her to the ER because she was cramping and bleeding. She swears "No I'm not pregnant". A blood and urine test comes back positive for pregnacy and the ultrasound shows a 33 week live fetus. She is taken to L&D where she is found to be 6 cm dilated. She maintains she didn't know she was pregnant. Her roommate didn't know. Her boyfriend didn't know. Her parents, family, friends didn't know. They are all speechless and feel ignorant, and you can tell none of them knew. The patient, I think, knew. She went out and partied, shopped and went about life like normal. The patient was obviously pregnant. She was 120lbs pregnant and you could see a mass moving in her abdomen. If she really didn't know, I want to know what she thought was moving around down there. If I didn't know I was pregnant and felt movement like that and saw little edges poking out my abdomen, I would be flipping out wondering what kind alien was growing in there. Maybe I have very active babies, but there's no mistaking the movement for gas. Anyway, the story has a good ending. Her aunt and uncle tried for years to have a baby but couldn't and were looking to adopt, but had been waiting for 2 years. They are going to adopt the baby, the birth mom plans on returning to college classes this week and the baby appears to be healthy. I wonder if this little baby will ever know the circumstances, and all the lives that were affected by this birth.

On a different note, I had a nice delivery this weekend. When the MD arrived, the dad looked around at the staff attending the birth and noticed that the delivering MD was very pregnant, the labor nurse (yours truly) was pregnant, and the nurse attending the baby was pregnant. He said to his wife "Honey, I'll bring you in bottled water because I don't want you drinking the water around here. Everyone who works here is pregnant. And I think we should be careful." It was pretty funny.

The dreams of nurses

This week we had a staff meeting and I was a good employee and actually went. As usual, it was a waste of my time. We spent the majority of the time talking about what we wanted for our new unit. Plan is that we will be in a new building by 2011. Some things have already be decided. We are going to be a unit with LDRP's, and will have some "plain" rooms for antepartum, post-op, etc. We will still have 2 OR's for an estimated 43% c-section rate (which is the current rate for the month of Sept.) We'll have a level 2 plus nursery with 6 beds, and we'll be able to care for babies that are on vents for short term. Right now we cant care for any babe on a vent. There will be room for only 12 babies in the healthy nursery. In this community, the moms in general expect they'll be able to send their babies to the nursery to sleep between feedings, or be fed all night my us. They estimate we'll be doing 2400 deliveries a year from our current 1600 or so this past year. Major problems I see: The nursery is too small. We are a level 2 now and at times we have 5 sick babies. If we can care for babies on vents and more premature babes, where are we going to put them? What about the healthy babes? Some moms are too sick to have their baby in the room, and although it goes against the whole dyad nursing thing, a lot of them will want their baby in the nursery to sleep. Where will we put the babies until the expectation of putting babies in the nursery for the night ceases. The layout worries me, too. They plan on doing a triangle shaped unit with the OR's at the back. Ok, say we have a cord prolapse in the room by the entrance. We'll have to go down the hallway, around a corner and down a long hallway to get to the OR. All while keeping our hand pushing up on the baby's head to keep it off the cord, maintaining privacy and trying not to run over anyone int eh hall. These are the things I worry about. A lot of people were more concerned about ammenities. They basically want the patient rooms to be like a 5-star hotel. I admit, it would be nice, but will we have the staff to take care of the patients? We do need bigger, better looking rooms, internet connections, etc. , because the rooms now are small, ugly, don't have internet connections and the hallways have carpet (which is nasty). All I want is up-to-date equipment that works, and competant staff. All the foo-foo stuff doesn't matter. And I'm talking from not only a nurses point of view, but a patient point of view. I dont' need a fridge, fancy sheets, or a wide screen tv. Just give me a decent bed with clean linen, a clean working bathroom and diapers, wipes and a bed for my baby, and nurses, techs who can help me. Is this what other units are like? I've been shelter and have only seen 2 L&D units, ever, so maybe this is how things are, which isn't bad, but just not necessary. We'll see what we get in 2011.

More Belly Pics

27.4 weeks

After looking back at the belly pics I took 6 weeks ago, I am really regretting that I didn't do this with my other two kids. I've put on a lot more weight this time than I did with Clara, but less so far than with Jacob. I think I figured out why. With Jacob, he was my first and I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. So I gained almost 50 pounds. Clara came so soon after Jacob that really I was still adjusting to being a mom, and I didn't snack much at all. This time, I'm cooking more for the kids and instead of eating the fruit and veggies I give them, I eat just the chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, etc. I did start our 6 lbs heavier this time, but I'm only 2 lbs away from the weight I was when I delivered Clara. Oh well, you're supposed to gain weight while pregnant.

Today I took the kids to a small pond that has a mile track around it to look at the geese. After we were leaving, some guy looked at me with my kids and pregnant stomach and said "Man, you're having them close, you're going to have it tough!" Usually I have a retort, but he caught me off guard so I just looked at him. Why is it people say stupid crap like that? Do people really think they are being helpful? I got that ALL the time when I was pregnant with Clara when people found out there would only be 15 months between them if I delivered at 40 weeks. I dont think people always realize that perhaps this is how my husband and I want it. We wanted all three of our kids close, and expecially since the first two are so close in age, we didn't want the third to be so far behind in age and get left out, although that will probably happen anyway. So far though, no stranger has reached out and touched my stomach. That's another one of those annoying things people do. I don't mind so much if it's someone I know. It's the perfect strangers who feel that a large abdomen is an invitation to touch. I reach out and rub their stomach every time it happened to me. I actually saw a shirt somewhere on-line that said "Don't touch, I kick". But I don't think I'd get the same reaction as reaching out and rubbing their stomach.

Bradley and Leboyer

This morning I had a beautiful delivery with a great story to go along with it. Had a first time om come in in labor. She didn't look too uncomfortable, so we didnt figure she was too incredibly active. Doing the admission assessment, they told me they had been trying to get pregnant for more years and were told that they were infertile and wouldn't be able to get pregnant. They went through everything under the sun trying to get pregnant. So they were quite surprised when she got pregnant on her own after they had given up. They decided to use the Bradley method of birthing, which I honestly don't know that much about, but I love when patients use it. Its a technique where the mothers and her partner work together and the mom trusts her body, relaxes and tunes into her body, instead of using medication or distraction for the pain. The people who use it do extremely well and are in great control. And the dads play an active role in labor instead of being a bystander. We get so few here. The majority of people get epidurals (84%). She was in such good control. She turned out to be 8 cm. When she had a contraction, she would just completely relax and close her eyes. We did intermittant monitoring, only placed a saline lock, and she and her husband moved around and "danced" while she contracted. Baby came when he decided, which was before the doc could get there (and I actually thought I had called her in too early). But it was nice. We deferred all the stuff some people find necessary after a baby is born, mom did skin to skin and put her much wanted son to the breast right away. Then we did a Leboyer bath after they were ready. This is where instead of doing a sponge bath that the baby screams through, it involves submerging the baby into warm water and letting dad/mom support the baby's head and neck while the body floats free in the water. You can then wash them while the baby moves his/her legs and arms around. They stay warm and seem to really enjoy the water. The parents love it too. If I had to describe the perfect delivery, this would have been this birth. Wonderfully nice parents, healthy baby, fairly short labor and delivery without all the interventions. Maybe this will make up for the first elective primary c-section I have.