As I'm sure you can guess from the title, it was another day on the labor and delivery floor. Fortunately, it was a very light day--there was only one woman in labor, and she was a private patient (there are two classes of patients: private and clinic. Residents and med students deliver clinic patients. Private patients are the ones who pay money to see a real OB/GYN). Anyway, said private patient came in with a birth plan which somehow involved one of those birthing balls. Also in her birth plan was no internal fetal monitoring. Fortunately, this particular private patient was reasonable enough that when the baby didn't look so good on external monitoring, she agreed to internal monitors. That's not really the point of this story, though. As soon as the night team said the words "birth plan", that prompted all the residents to start telling their own stories of patients arriving with birth plans. The one that took the cake was a couple who had a six page plan, the last step of which was to give the mom a plate and utensils after birthing was complete so she could eat the placenta. Ewww. I still get grossed out thinking about it. (It didn't happen--placentas are considered biological waste, so patients who deliver in the hospital aren't allowed to eat them).
The only other patient who did anything was a woman at 29 weeks gestation who came in complaining that she hadn't felt the baby move in the last two days. When they took her blood pressure, it was about 210/120 (normal is 120/80), and when they put external monitors on her, they found the baby's heartbeat, but the tracing was not very reassuring--there was almost no variability to the baby's pulse, which should be seen. So, she went from presenting to triage to the OR for a c-section within an hour. Baby is now in the NICU.
And speaking of the NICU, I got a little scare this morning when I checked the NICU census out of curiosity and didn't see the baby from the c-section Friday night (the one with a hemoglobin of 1.5). So I looked him up and read the notes. He was transferred to the NICU at Nationwide Children's early this morning. By that point, his hemoglobin was about 7.8--not normal, but much better. Lots of baby blood transfusions will do that. So since he's at the children's hospital, I can't check up on him anymore, so all that's left is to pray for him and his family.
After we signed out to the night team, I headed for the pool for my weekly 2 mile swim, then the smoothie place for my weekly "you went swimming today, good job" smoothie. Dinner was a bowl of cereal, and now it's time for a shower and getting to bed to do it all again tomorrow.
8 comments:
Hmm, wonder what you would think of Dayna's 12 page birthplan.
As long as there's nothing about eating the placenta, I can't think Dayna's would be too bad!
Does it involve birthing balls and rocking chairs and no epidurals?
Are those bad?
The point of birth plans is to think ahead of time about what you'd like, and make people be informed of the interventions, etc ahead of time. I don't think I specifically put birth ball in mine, but if one is around and I need it for me knees, I'd use it. And, no epidural is there, but as we know, it is just a plan, not a requirement...
I think my plan is only 2 pages long, and is mostly standard. Although, I, too, prefer no internal monitoring (or really external monitoring)--I think it just makes moms more nervous.
I'm curious why don't you like birthing balls, rocking chairs, and no epidurals in birth plans (did use any of them with Danelle)?
BTW--I like that you have a blog. It is the only way for me to know what you've been up to--way better than trying to rely on an email from you. I think the last one I got was when you were in chemistry at Hiram still... Not that I'm any better. :)
meant, did Not use any of them with Danelle... the word Not got lost.
I actually haven't seen a birthing ball used, and I have nothing against using the rocking chair, except that it got really messy. As far as the monitoring, I actually agree with you there, and so do a lot of OBs. The only evidence that has come out of all of the monitoring is that it makes OBs more nervous and makes them more likely to do c-sections. It doesn't improve the outcome of the babies at all.
Ok, I went in with a birth plan too. The nurse kind of looked at me funny...I thought most people had one. I also said no epidural, no internal monitoring and no IV unless necessary. I think it is good to be prepared. When you are surprized by finally being in labor, it is much easier to hand them a piece of paper that tells you what you want. What was up with eating the placenta? Was that a weird cultural thing?
According to the resident who told the placenta story, they were white hippie-type people. Apparently, the Somalians (we have a large Somali population here in Columbus) have some sort of ritual with the placenta, but it doesn't involve eating it.
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