L&D

This week I was assigned to L&D, that is Labor and Delivery. I participated in helping with two births on Wednesday. The first came very fast when it came, the second not so much. They were both spanish speaking pt's which made for somewhat of a barrier. Mi espanol is muy picito y muy mal. (I speak very little spanish and it is bad.)

The first pt was having her fourth child. They had given her pitocin and she went from a 4 at 70% to a 10 at 100% very quickly. We went in the room and tell her not to push and she doesn't, but she kind of sighs and the baby falls out. It was one of the oddest things I have ever witnessed. Sigh, then baby. It was a beautiful baby and the mother and father was so excited. The fathers aunt had died roughly an hour or so before and so they named the babe after her.

The second pt was having her first baby. The had her on pitocin for a long time and she was progressing very slowly. She stayed at 8 and 90% for a long time and then 9 and 90% for a long time. She presented full at 10:50 am and we helped her push for four hours. She was working so hard and trying so hard. She was truly exhausted. The baby's head was not going to come through it was presenting at a bad angle and positioned such that it was not coming through. The next thing I now I was in the L&D OR prepping the pt for a c-section. Once it got going I stood at the foot of her bed and observed the birth of her baby. The pt had been pushing so long that the baby was in the vaginal canal, so at the appropriate time, the circulating nurse had to crawl under the operating table open a trapped door, reach in with a sterile glove and manually push the baby out of the vaginal canal. So the pt had two hands in her at one time - weird. Moments later a beautiful baby girl (with an oddly shaped head) was born. She responded slowly to the world due to the drugs she had received, but eventually she came around.

Life is truly amazing. This morning my little friend Haydn is staying with us and Christa and Dewayne are off to Baptist to have my newest little friend Ava. I'm excited to meet her today. Funny how it's different when it is one of your own as opposed to one you just help with. May God bless them.