more CLINical.

This past week I had day shifts both thursday and friday, which has never happened for me before. It's friday night and i'm dONe for! Yesterday I labour-watched all morning with the strongest woman eVer...she was so tough and, after endorsing her, I came back this morning to learn she didn't give birth until closer to six thursday night!

This morning I was endorsed a lovely couple. It was exciting because they both speak english very well and it was easy to see how much in love they were. Mercedita's bana (husband) was aMAZingly supportive throughout the enTIRE morning. Unfortunately she was very small and, after pushing for almost two hours, the baby's head wouldn't move past her low-set pubic bone. She was just TOO small! My supervisor took over and I observed my first episiotomy..which doesn't happen often at Mercy. It was sick though - to watch her cut through flesh and muscle like that. By this time BOTH Mercedita's mother AND mother-in-law were assisting in her labour! It was a pretty fun cubicle! After that procedure, and a whole lot of perineal pressure and stretching, the baby crowned and came into the world at 12:25pm.

She had been on a birth stool and after swinging her back around to lie on the bed my supervisor thEN began cct (controlled cord traction, basically pulling the placenta out) while I supported her uterus externally. We needed to get it out quickly because she was hemorrhaging. Except the insertion of the cord into the placenta was "bottle-door", making it more likely to break. so THEN the cord broke and May had to stick her hand up into the uterus to manually remove the placenta. I mean, you're PRObably picturing it worse than it ACTually was, but still...another complicated birth. The sweet thing was because the 'tear'/incision was so straight it was an easy suture and May let me do it. Even though it wasn't "MY" handle, it started off mine and when May asked her when she could come in for her first baby check-up Mercedita said she wanted me to do it! So thAt's fun!

Because of the prolonged labour, the baby had a fairly big caput (kINda funny when I stop to think of how to describe a caput...it's like a conehead!). Just to ensure the baby has the ability to clot well vitamin k is injected IM at every birth, but with a caput that size we needed to do it immediately. Eye meds are also administered, to prevent any infections the mother might have had from spreading to the baby. We've ALSO just started giving the baby's first hepatitis B injections before discharging. Some of the midwives (the white ones..) at our clinic have problems with giving hepa.b, but it's a law for every baby to be vaccinated. THEREfore I've become a pRO at giving hepa injections because no one wants to, so I do it for those who won't. The way I see it is - they're going to get it eVENTually, so I might as well be the one....kINDa nuts though, when I think about what I'm allowed to do. Sorry there aren't any pictures..the batteries for my camera last less than half an hour before dying. It's somewhat frustrating.