From the worst day to the best day
Oct. 7th, 2020 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterVindication is a dish best served piping hot.
Yesterday's lady was still there when I walked in.
I started the day off meeting a new staff member in the tea room whom I recognised from MSH.
And I'm like don't let them give you so and so - it was a very bad day yesterday. And we started laughing. And then I started crying. And then i started laugh crying and she gave me a hug when she realised oh shit I was serious. And then she told me a story of her worst day (which still sounded a lot better than my own worst day, but still she shared.
So I go to the room I'm allocated, feeling pretty down about yesterday.
But all day I didn't have to try very hard to hear what was happening in that room.
Overnight, there were issues. The CTG was non-reassuring and the midwife wanted to turn her over (positioning and fluids thats the 2 things to do when the fetal heart isn't reassuring) and the woman outright refused to do so until the husband came back.
....
Then, the midwife caught him pressing the epidural PCA. Thats downright illegal. And as an RN he should know better
....
Apparently she got "used" to the VEs.
I was surprised that she even got to 5cm. Then even 8-9cm.
Then she stayed at that for 2 hours.
And then they finally decided to go for a c-section.
He tried to disallow the midwife from disconnecting the epidural despite it being standard procedure when going for a c-section. She explained why. He argued, she got ticked off worse.
Man the tiredness, -- not to mention that discussion we had at the start of my shift before the IOL about the IOL. and if it was safe ... and about having a c-section instead.
--- there was an altercation in the hallway, right in front of everyone. Where a senior explained to him "your not an RN today, today, your the support person" and he just lost his shit.
I hid in the tea room I knew something was going on outside but I didn't know what.
The midwives were talking about how when we have a woman in ICU we don't traipse in there and tell them how to do their job, so how can he just traipse into midi and tell us how to do our work when he doesn't know anything about obstetrics.
That husband single handedly started a war between ICU and birth unit in the same hospital.
I accidentally left work 45 mins early. But to be fair, my meal breaks have been much shorter than they should be. I can prepare and eat dinner in 10 mins... Standard for seasoned hospital staff, but not great for one's sense of self worth.
Then my day turned into the best day. I was allocated:
P1
Antenatally well (but skipped a bunch of appointments for various dubious reasons).
19 year old female.
Keen initially on a water birth.
We went through a few things briefly, but she couldn't stay still in the water. The contractions seemed to have died down a bit.
I mostly let her do her thing.
She tried the gas, didn't like it.
Walked around the room.
Got on the bed.
Got off the bed.
Vomited.
Then she was like "I don't know if I want to push or shit"
And I'm like okay get on the bed I'll do a VE. I had a good feeling about this one.
FULLY!
We did some all fours on the bed but then all of a sudden she got off the bed and I freaked out because I had put the bed up higher to increase the height And I didn't want her to fall off (worst day of any nurse's life: the pt falls off the bed). But she got off okay and was standing by the tub was right cause 20 mins later,
One of the seniors comes to help me and is like do you want to put on a gown, and I'm like oh, yeah ok.
And I remember yesterday A had warned me : standing births are so messy.
Gowned up.
5 mins later, This woman literally dihorrea shat all over as her baby came out. I was telling her to slow down, the baby came so fast, she's like I can't!
And then the baby came out, and poop was on its face which I wiped super quick.
And it cried.
And all was good.
She wanted a lotus birth.
So the senior taught me how to do that (she explained it and I was like ah yeah cool I get the gist) and she watched me do it- and knew I had it and it was fine. And I remember thinking- If only every birth was like this, I could do this (although birth seems rarely like this).
Male.
3060g.
And the first birth where I declared as "fully" was correct, explained to the woman that she can start pushing, she pushed, and birthed and all good.
My only reserves were - her perineum was a small 1st, i didn't think it needed a stitch, the senior had a look also, and thought it could do without. So no suture.
I take her to the postnatal ward. I handover.
The midwife didn't check the fundus or the perineum.
In Westmead, they always did those two things on handover. So those extra checks would have reassured me. At SSH it feels like the postnatal ward is run more like hotel with trained staff. You need us for something? Buzz. Otherwise I'll be doing all the other stuff
Yesterday's lady was still there when I walked in.
I started the day off meeting a new staff member in the tea room whom I recognised from MSH.
And I'm like don't let them give you so and so - it was a very bad day yesterday. And we started laughing. And then I started crying. And then i started laugh crying and she gave me a hug when she realised oh shit I was serious. And then she told me a story of her worst day (which still sounded a lot better than my own worst day, but still she shared.
So I go to the room I'm allocated, feeling pretty down about yesterday.
But all day I didn't have to try very hard to hear what was happening in that room.
Overnight, there were issues. The CTG was non-reassuring and the midwife wanted to turn her over (positioning and fluids thats the 2 things to do when the fetal heart isn't reassuring) and the woman outright refused to do so until the husband came back.
....
Then, the midwife caught him pressing the epidural PCA. Thats downright illegal. And as an RN he should know better
....
Apparently she got "used" to the VEs.
I was surprised that she even got to 5cm. Then even 8-9cm.
Then she stayed at that for 2 hours.
And then they finally decided to go for a c-section.
He tried to disallow the midwife from disconnecting the epidural despite it being standard procedure when going for a c-section. She explained why. He argued, she got ticked off worse.
Man the tiredness, -- not to mention that discussion we had at the start of my shift before the IOL about the IOL. and if it was safe ... and about having a c-section instead.
--- there was an altercation in the hallway, right in front of everyone. Where a senior explained to him "your not an RN today, today, your the support person" and he just lost his shit.
I hid in the tea room I knew something was going on outside but I didn't know what.
The midwives were talking about how when we have a woman in ICU we don't traipse in there and tell them how to do their job, so how can he just traipse into midi and tell us how to do our work when he doesn't know anything about obstetrics.
That husband single handedly started a war between ICU and birth unit in the same hospital.
I accidentally left work 45 mins early. But to be fair, my meal breaks have been much shorter than they should be. I can prepare and eat dinner in 10 mins... Standard for seasoned hospital staff, but not great for one's sense of self worth.
Then my day turned into the best day. I was allocated:
P1
Antenatally well (but skipped a bunch of appointments for various dubious reasons).
19 year old female.
Keen initially on a water birth.
We went through a few things briefly, but she couldn't stay still in the water. The contractions seemed to have died down a bit.
I mostly let her do her thing.
She tried the gas, didn't like it.
Walked around the room.
Got on the bed.
Got off the bed.
Vomited.
Then she was like "I don't know if I want to push or shit"
And I'm like okay get on the bed I'll do a VE. I had a good feeling about this one.
FULLY!
We did some all fours on the bed but then all of a sudden she got off the bed and I freaked out because I had put the bed up higher to increase the height And I didn't want her to fall off (worst day of any nurse's life: the pt falls off the bed). But she got off okay and was standing by the tub was right cause 20 mins later,
One of the seniors comes to help me and is like do you want to put on a gown, and I'm like oh, yeah ok.
And I remember yesterday A had warned me : standing births are so messy.
Gowned up.
5 mins later, This woman literally dihorrea shat all over as her baby came out. I was telling her to slow down, the baby came so fast, she's like I can't!
And then the baby came out, and poop was on its face which I wiped super quick.
And it cried.
And all was good.
She wanted a lotus birth.
So the senior taught me how to do that (she explained it and I was like ah yeah cool I get the gist) and she watched me do it- and knew I had it and it was fine. And I remember thinking- If only every birth was like this, I could do this (although birth seems rarely like this).
Male.
3060g.
And the first birth where I declared as "fully" was correct, explained to the woman that she can start pushing, she pushed, and birthed and all good.
My only reserves were - her perineum was a small 1st, i didn't think it needed a stitch, the senior had a look also, and thought it could do without. So no suture.
I take her to the postnatal ward. I handover.
The midwife didn't check the fundus or the perineum.
In Westmead, they always did those two things on handover. So those extra checks would have reassured me. At SSH it feels like the postnatal ward is run more like hotel with trained staff. You need us for something? Buzz. Otherwise I'll be doing all the other stuff
