The three women of today

[whitewriter]

Woman number 1
I was handed over that this lady required only one thing: the going home form.
Once that was collected, and her husband came to pick her up, she could go home.

When I entered the room, SWISH was doing the hearing screen that she was going to return for another day such was her rush to go home.

The baby had started having large blood stained mucousy vomits, which were really similar to what Wendy-pie did when i had her. She'd had those for 8 hours before she managed to latch on properly and feed.

This lady was a p2. I asked her if she felt confident in feeding her baby, and if so, once the vomiting settled, if she wanted to go home, she could.

Somehow I wasn't clear that she should probably say goodbye to me before she left - because at 10am i wondered gee. Considering its locals who give birth at this hospital, and I spoke to her at 0730, her husband sure is taking his time. At 1030 I went to her room to just see what was up only to find it completely and utterly empty. I finally realised she'd left. I gave her a quick phone call to confirm and was so shocked throughout that I didn't really know what to say, wished her well, and said Goodbye. The ward clerk thought I should have told her off. I thought I should have asked her what time she left. (was it like 5 mins after I left her room the first time or was it more like 1 hour...)

In anycase. She should be enjoying her newborn at home by now, which is a lovely thought.

woman no 2
Late onset PET whose BP just would not go down. She had PRN hydralazine on top of the Entapril BD they'd started her on and then started her on Nifedipine SR. I had a really weird conversation with the doctor where she got confused between MR and SR and CR and whatever R there is (basically one is slow and one is fast) and I was like so you want IR or Mr (Fast or slow) and shes like fast. so I'm like well for the fast one you ned to fill out the special order form. Which she declared she never filled out. To which I replied: so do you want the fast one that requires the form or the slow one that doesn't and she's like fast. And I'm like but you charted slow. So if you want the fast one - your gonna have to change the chart.

How do we even exist as a hospital that functions sometimes...

anyways. so we ended up going with slow. Which was what was charted. Lady. Know what you want...

Woman no. 3
The Philippino.
They're the Lebanese of Asia in the birthing world. Indians are princess to the high heavens and the Philos just get in there and get it done. Yes I'm racist. But that's what I see.

G2P1.

Her first birth, she described occurred in a large room with other women you could see also giving birth. She found this traumatic. She said this will be a luxury experience. Her hubby is a RN in ED.


Well. It is a very nice birthing unit.

I remember the last time I had a husband who worked in the hospital (ICU though, not ED) and I literally cried myself to sleep that night wondering why on earth I decided to do midwifery in the first place. lol. This wasn't going to be that experience though, I could tell.


I was given a student (lol there goes my birth again) And somehow the two of us muddled our way through it. I basically did all the work and the kiddo student did the catch, Way to go student I thought she did great.

The head was birthed easily, and then with a great giant splash the liquor went bloody everywhere, All over my scrubs - which I didn't change, so the liquor basically dried into it, whilst I wore it for the rest of the shift frantically trying catch up with paperwork.

Apparently there was a hand presentation (as per the student) but I honestly didn't see the hand - and considering there was such little damage to the vagina and peri ( it was bilateral labial grazes with 2 grazes on the maternal right and one on the left and a small 2nd degree tear that looked super easy to suture - it was all over in 2 hours and 30 mins from entry to birth unit to baby in the hand.

As i write this, my hair is drying from being washed.

I fear there's liquor in it from the splash. And although my hair didn't feel wet, I'm fairly sure something went in there.

Yuck.

When I got home, the cops were blocking my mother's back gate and my general parking area - they'd stopped a car that looked much like my car.


The Fourth woman

she wasn't mine but I was talking an ex-MICH new grad RN that is now a midwife at SSH, and she told me this horrendous, horrendous story There was this woman, who was high BMI and uncontrolled GDM (hba1c was very very high for a pregnant lady). She was supposedly offered a c-section and declined. Instead, she ended up having a terrible terrible shoulder dystocia - essentially, the baby's head was born- and it was just. stuck. And they didn't do a symphasis pubis because it had poor outcomes and they didn't think the child would have a good outcome either. Essentially at some stage the baby then passed away, and the woman had a GA c-section to remove the baby, which took a real long time for that type of C-section.

The family blamed the doctors. Who claimed the woman wanted a c-section all along. Only the father of the woman sided with her initial decision (no c-section as her choice).

The midwife she had was an extreemly experienced midwife.

Apparently the family is suing the hospital/doctors etc. so that should be... a very stressful time for everyone.

I likened this situation back to Shoko's wedding.

When Shoko was planning her wedding she outlined her plans to me and I said "sure sure, whatever you want sounds great". Turns out the real person she should have been outlining all the plans with was, her mother.

Who then arrived off a plane for a 4 days stay in Australia for this wedding to go "your doing what?!!? and you don't have this and you didn't buy that?!?! and what about ...." and etc.

such that 1 bridesmaid (not I) turned to Shoko and was like yes! your mother is right. And I sat there thinking but what about what Shoko wants?

In many non-Western cultures the identity of the self is not to be individualistic. You got to think of others in your immediate family and at the end of the day - the wedding - or in this case the child - belongs to the family more so than the individual.

I wonder if at some point somewhere the doctor turned to the woman and said something along the lines of, I understand it's your body and your decision but will you or your family be okay if something happened to the baby? Your family agrees with your decision to not have a c-section?

Have you talked to them about it?

I don't know where the husband/father of the baby was in this entire scenario. But in any case. The story just kept getting shitter all round. The doctor who had the conversation with the woman and clearly documented it, was sent later on to get bloods from the woman and got hounded by her family at the time. And she left crying about it.

Eventually, they left the hospital.

I'm sure this will be haunting some staff members for quite some time.

ICU can be dramatic but, due to the slowness of most of it - and the implication of ICU = brink of death, any sort of recovery is hailed a miracle and any death is expected.

In birthing, it's the other way around. Normal natural daily events is hailed miracles and that's expected. Death is quick, dramatic and unexpected and entirely haunting experience for most involved.