First day on the maternity ward...
Admit it. You're here to find out about the babies, aren't you? I must tell you: they are cute. Precious, in fact. Wee bitty things that you want to munch on and smell their little baby smell. It's true. Those tiny feet and that hair that reminds me of the baby ducks Judy used to hatch in her kindergarten classes. OMG, total cuteness.
But first, the hospital. It's a small facility in the Mission but has free parking in the garage on weekends (score) but the cafeteria is closed on weekends (which is either good or bad depending on how good their food is). The nice thing about weekend night clinicals is that the traffic is generally pretty good unless there's a Giants game. What's especially nice is that this hospital tries to avoid medical interventions during L&D as much as possible and has a 3% c-section rate (c/s). 3%. That's totally unheard of. They do c/s if they need to but they don't permit scheduled c/s which I think is great. They have mostly nurse-midwives on staff but there are OB-GYNs around, too.
It's a nice facility and the post-partum rooms are relatively roomy and have a pull out couch for family. They do "couplet" care so the baby rooms with mom and the nurses care for mom and baby simultaneously. The NICU is a level 2 so really premature babies and really sick babies get transported across town to the other facility which is a level 5. There were 2 babies in the NICU this weekend and they were tiny. The nurses are nice and our clinical instructor is great. Also, this part of the hospital feels less contaminated by MRSA and C. diff than med-surg floors which was nice. I came home Sat. night and didn't even take a shower before going to bed. Normally, I'm in the shower within 3 minutes of walking in the door. Still, I never wear my scrubs in the house.
So, my assignment for the evening was to do the well-baby assessments. I assessed every newborn on the ward and changed diapers and talked to moms about feeding. Newborns are funny little things. They really don't like to be messed with and absolutely hate having their temperature taken. All but one of the babies was eating well and I changed some very wet diapers. I got a rather full meconium one just 2 hours after birth. Good lord, that stuff is sticky. And I managed to avoid being sprayed in the face. Did you know that diapers come with little lines on them that change color when the baby wets in them? What a brilliant idea! Except when the pee just runs up their backs it's kind of useless but still. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that some of the adult diapers have the same thing. Which is nice for the same reason and allows you to preserve their dignity a little more.
This weekend I'm on post-partum duty so I'll be assessing moms for lochia and breast stuff. The week after I'll be doing a turn in L&D and NICU. I hope someone gives birth while I'm there but I have no control over that. Chances are I won't see a c/s birth but maybe. Either way, it's all really neat. They want us to do the teaching with the moms but for all the reading and classroom discussion on breast feeding, I still feel like I don't know what the hell to say. I know what I'm supposed to say but it seems so weird to teach someone how to do something I've never done before. Then again, I've had to teach someone how to clean his colostomy bag and I sure as hell don't ever plan to have one of those.
All in all, it was a good weekend and I'm looking forward to going back on Saturday. Stay tuned.
5 comments:
You know, all disposable diapers should come with those lines. Unfortunately, I think it's just the ones at the hospital, because we never could find them in the stores...I thought it was brilliant, too.
Both Katie and Gaby hated to be messed with by the nurses, but oh, it was nice to have someone change the diapers for a few days. :)
My cube partner, Derek, said that he wants to make a diaper that doesn't just change color but sends you a text message when it needs changing. (He brought the topic up... it wasn't a response to my reading the blog.)
Leave it to a geek to think of that one.
I can't believe all disposables don't come with the line...what a shame. I must say, it's been so long since I've been around a newborn that I had kind of forgotten about how pee and poop goes all over the place. I changed one diaper that had pee the whole way up the baby's back and he had completely soaked his little pjs and the blanket swaddled around him. I think it's safe to say he's getting enough to eat.
So, will the hospital refuse to do scheduled c-sections even if it's deemed medically necessary before the birth (and isn't just someone's preference? which, I have to say, I kind of think is legit anyway. I read enough mommy blogs to know that's controversial, but I don't know, it seems like an OK option to me for certain reasons.)
Sometimes scheduled c-sections are necessary but usually they are not. This hospital is about limiting the use of medical intervention as much as possible but I'd have to confirm if they do ANY c-sections that aren't emergency c-sections. More than likely that pt would have to go to a different facility. Yes, c-sections are a seriously hot topic and if there is one area of nursing that is chock-full of biases and judgment, it's this one.
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