Addendum

In the midst of the frustration last night, I did have probably what I'll call my favorite/nicest delivery so far in my career. My patient, first time mom, was completely dilated when I came on. She was comfortable with her epidural and since she wasn't feeling any pressure/urge to push, and her baby was still kind of high, I let her labor down, or let her uterus push her baby farther into the pelvis, instead of having her start pushing right away. After about 45 minutes, the baby had descended nicely and we started pushing. The parents were a nice young couple, married only for a short time before they decided they wanted a family. It was a nice soothing environment, no loud shouts of "You can do it! Push harder, harder, harder, come on..." That's just not my style, yelling at the perineum. Nice, positive encouragement, without yelling worked well for her. She did push for about 1 1/2 hours. But when the baby was being delivered, she looked down, saw her baby and said "oh my gosh, our baby" and once her daughter was placed on her abdomen, she looked at that baby with tears in her eyes and then she looked at her husband and there was just something in their faces as they looked at each other and looked at their daughter. It was really touching. And the dad was just so gentle and nervous to hold her. The delivery also went very smoothely on our part, all of us working as a team like a well-oiled machine. Mom got to have her baby in her arms until she was ready for weight/measurements, and the communication was excellent. The scrub tech took those one-chance pictures of dad cutting the cord and she caught that moment when mom and dad looked at each other, in awe of what they created. And I can't explain in words how beautiful those first moments were. There are moments like these in all deliveries but it seemed different this time. It's no surprise to those who know me, because I cry all the time, but I had tears in my eyes. So while I whine and complain a lot, really those irratating times aren't the majority, and I'm not some jaded, frustrated labor RN. It's moments like these that make me love what I do. Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!