Sunday, October 21, 2007

wow, 6 of them!


So you have your slow shifts, and your mild shifts, and your busy shifts.. but then there are there are the crazy shifts that people talk about for days after... well I was on one of those on Saturday morning... our shifts are only 8 hours, and usually we have 1-2 babies on a shift, 3 would be busy... well, saturday morning we had 6!!! That's right, 6. The team was Ate Ermie, Jenny, Medea, and Ghang ghang... and me... and Medea's friend from Switzerland... thankfully everyone can catch except me (and Elizabeth, Medea's friend). We were endorsed 3 labors, one of them pushing, one of them about to be pushing, and another one in early labor who refused to go home. So the first one delivered at 6:23 right after shift change, we actually did endorsments right outside of her cubicle. So I charted for her birth. The second went at 6:53 and I charted for her birth as well (it was really fast). Then we had another girl come in who was active... and she had her baby at 8:04, I charted that one too, meanwhile there was another girl pushing in bed 5... so after the placenta and checks and stuff, I ran down to that one... but it turned out that she wasn't ready to be pushing... so they made her stop...then some time... another girl came in (I think when I was with Ate Ermie at that 8:04 birth), and she was pushy... so, her baby was born at 8:40... and that was Medea's second catch of the day! yikes! So then we had a little break... and that girl who was pushing but had to stop wanted to push again... and this time she was ready. But if you will recall the order of things... 10 observes, 5 charts, then assist... and I had charted 5... so I was up for assisting... holy cow... SO my first birth as the assist... it was a boy, and he was born at 10:38... I didn't feel like I was too incredibly helpful, I didn't really know what I was doing.... AND he needed deep suction... and I definitely didn't know how to do that... so, I'm not counting it toward my 10... but I was the official assist on birth 5 of the day... so sometime in there... on of the other girl's continuity came in (that means, you do her prenatals, and then when she comes in to deliver you are the midwife, and you do all her checks and stuff after the baby). SO that was her girl, and she delivered at 1:23... and I helped with that one, it was a pretty tough birth, and there were some complications and such, so they needed me to do some stuff (stimulating the baby and such). So that was my day of 6 babies in 7 hours... There are only 5 in the pictures, because that last girl didn't go until a bit before endorsements, and then the baby needed deep suctioning, and then he needed deep suctioning again a while afterthe birth (I actually did that one, so now, next time it's needed I can do it... yikes!).

Me-Medea-Jenny-Ghang-Ate Ermie and 5 of the 6 babies of the morning.

2 comments:

Vixie Friedman said...

Hey Sarah,
Those were the sort of days that made me realize labor and delivery was for the young!
Love you,
Miss Vix

JennJo said...

Awesome! I love those crazy shifts once in a while. They get my blood pumping and challenge me. Congrats on assisting and deep suctioning! Moving right along, you are.