Birthday Nurse

I figured my comment about home-birthing might cause some stir.....and I think I was right. Let me just say up front (again!) that this is MY OPINION. It doesn't mean that it's the only opinion or heck, even the right opinion! It's just how I see things through my eyes. Someone asked what we have in a hospital that wouldn't be available at home. I'll admit that I've never been to a home birth, but from the research I've done here's a small list (not all inclusive) of things we would have in a hospital (not necessarily at every delivery but available within seconds) that usually wouldn't be available at home: ~ 5 L&D nurses ~ 4 NICU nurses ~ 2 Neonatal Nurse Practitioners ~ a full team to take care of mom after delivery and a separate team to take care of the baby after delivery ~ a labor bed that can be adjusted to many different positions to facilitate McRoberts maneuver (plus lots of others) ~ a full OR team/equipment (including anesth...

Every nurse has experiences that they never forget....shoulder dystocias are some of those experiences. Not going to go into detail....but all 7 nurses and the doctor were shaking pretty bad after a very cute and chubby baby destined to be a linebacker came out safe and sound. Scenarios like that are what put lots of things into perspective: ~the high acuity of what I get to do every night ~the great teamwork we have as a unit ~and why home birth is such a bad idea in my book! This mom didn't push very long, nobody would have guessed after a recent sono showed a <7# baby that he'd be a tight fit!! If this mom had tried to deliver at home, the outcome would not have been good.....for her or baby. On a less tense note...I got to deliver a baby for one of my friends from church this week. Those are so fun! Not only do I get to help Mom and Dad welcome their new baby but I get to watch her grow up over the next couple years. It's like a premature ending when I deliver ...

Does Friday night have an OB curse everywhere?! It's like a full moon...Friday nights have a reputation for being beyond crazy!! Walk in the door @ 1830 and there are no empty rooms...and the board is FULL of labors! Labors are good....it means that they will get delivered and open up a room eventually...but they also can't be stacked up with one nurse, so it takes more nurses to take care of a board of labors over a board of antepartums. Still...I'd rather take labors anyday! Most of the labors were inductions hanging around from 0700, anywhere from 4-8cm. First clue that maybe the night is gonna be full of surprises, in the midst of a pushing marathon a family member passes out, splits their head open and is unresponsive on the floor. It took 3 docs and multiple nurses calling down to ED to have them send a gurney up to get her. "Well...can you put her in a wheelchair and bring her down, we're busy." Um...no. She's unconscious, we can't jus put her i...

I haven't done 3-in-a-row in a while, but it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm exhausted and going to bed at 1900 tonight, but I'm really OK with that! We were busy enough last night to keep us all on our toes... Story #1: Gotta love those shift-change catastrophes. When I walked in right at 1830 last night, the unit looked slightly deserted but everyone who was there was a little high strung. I guess about 1810 a lady had walked in 33 wks and said that she had severe right upper quadrant pain. She said it may be contractions, but they just felt funny. The nurse got her on the monitor, got about a 5 minute reactive tracing and then it was the crash. Baby didn't look HORRIBLE, but dropped from 150s to 90's. When I got there she was being rushed to the OR, general anesthesia and the doc was yelling "get the NNP , we're going to have a 33 weeker !" They thought her uterus was rupturing, but when they did the C/S her abdomen w...