Clinical

I was supposed to have a clinical day in the Pediatric OR today, but there were no kids scheduled for surgery. I was a little disappointed, but my instructor had me come to the postpartum ward to see if there were any moms and babes there.

There was one mom with her beautiful baby girl. Honestly, this little girl had so much hair you could have put it in a ponytail! It was unreal! Sadly (for me), they were discharged at 8:00am so I did not get to spend too much time with them. I just did a quick assessment of the mom and the babe and then they were off.

I sat around for the next few hours reading whatever articles were around the ward. The girl I carpool with was in labor and deliver so I went over there and read up on some things there as well. I picked the nurse's brains for a while and helped out around the ward. There was only one woman in labor, but a few came in for non-stress tests so that was kind of fun. The test itself was boring, but I love talking to women about their pregnancies, expectations, past labors etc. In my limited experience most of them are quite eager to chat. Oh, I also saw some pelvic exams. Now that looks VERY uncomfortable. Thankfully I couldn't do much to participate in those.

The laboring woman was pretty close to pushing so our instructor stayed overtime with us. We were supposed to be off the ward at 1:00 today, but we stayed until 3:00. There were already 12 people in the delivery room (mama, papa, 4 support people, 3 nurses, doctor, resident, nursing student) so I hung out with my instructor at the nurses station during most of the active labor. After the first couple pushes one of the nurses came out and told me to come into the room. So, I did... and it was AMAZING!

Birth astounds me. The mother did such a fabulous job!! I felt sorry for her because throughout her labor she wanted everyone to be quiet so she could focus, but she had her four support people yelling at her while she was trying to push. The first couple pushes were pretty ineffective, but everyone eventually they calmed down and she just listened to the nurse and the doctor as they told her what she needed to do. It felt so surreal to stand there and watch one of the most intimate experiences someone can have. I felt like I didn't belong there, but the dad gave me permission (mom was kind of busy) so I stayed. Wow. It was incredible. I don't even know what to say about it right now. It was amazing to see that little head slowly emerge and then slip back a couple time and then all of the sudden the baby was crowning. Mom pushed one more time in that same contraction and out popped the baby's head. It literally popped out. I was surprised by how quickly the rest of her was delivered - the little girl honestly seemed to fall out with the next contraction. She immediately let out this robust wail and mama had a sigh of relief. It was beautiful.

Just beautiful.