crazy night shift

So I've been trying to finish my postpartum assignment, however I am having trouble making the last final touches on it.


Last night I had a traumatic birth. We had two crazy births last night. Plus a couple transports to the hospital...

I spent the last two week being first up on my birthroom shift and no labors... not even early labors that i could send home... So I spent most of my time ready the Word, working on my assignment, sleeping a little since it was quiet.... I haven't had baby checks for a couple weeks since my last baby was the 15th...


So... I came to night shift last night, and my roomate had a labor that she endorsed to herself and I spent the night listening to music, waiting for a labor to come in... Around 11 a labor came in however she was really tiny, first baby, ultrasound stated the baby was 4 kg, ruptured membranes, so we transported due to lack of progress and bow rupture....

My hospital experience.... this is where my night became crazy!!! I spent some time praying with the patient I was transporting, the other labor at the clinic was being super vocal, so my patient was getting really nervous, so we transport an guess what a labor at the hospital is about ready to give birh right in the Ob ER... no doctor around, patient is screaming, she can't breathe though contracts... all she can do is push... a male nurse is standing by her unsure of what to do standing behind the wheelchair with this crazy freak out look on his face.. (priceless)..( It was just me and him in the room... I quickly put my hands in my pockets ready to see if I had gloves... for the doctor wasn't around... my patient is getting even more freaked out. She sits down I am still waiting to give the papers to the doctor. finally the doctor comes out takes my papers asks me why I was transporting... So I give her the paper, she puts the papers it on the table and takes two steps to the patient pushing but just stand there.... The patient by this time is screaming and cupping the babies head with her hand (with the oh my the baby is coming look on her face... scared unsure what to do... do I go with the urge that is in my body to push?...) I've seen this lots of times however not at DMC, and normally at MMC we rush the patients to an open bed and check to see how many cm visible try and get vitals... However the doctor was now in the room...So I didn't want to interfere, but I didn't want to leave the patient alone until I knew someone could delivery the baby... So I made my way back to the van to go back to MMC... trying to reflect on the fact I almost caught a baby at DMC...


I get back my roommate askes me to assist her with her labor... So I check heart tones, she is pushing, but nothing visible... wait sl opening...oh no... cervix... not good.... swollen lip on the cervix keep the baby from coming... hour of trying to coach her to breathe, checking heart tones... trying to figure out if we should transport, would she make it to the hospital or deliver in out ambulance... Oh Lord what do we do? .... we decide to give her until 1 am....well 1am on the dot baby girl... However at birth cervix visible... check for tear, check vitals, clean up after the birth.... monitior the mother and baby.... an hour later.....


A labor... yay.... I could catch a baby I have four hours until day shift.... my patient put some of the herbal oil on her stomach so I asked her to wash it off, and then continued with vitals....

My patient was super cute...everything she owned had some type of cartoon charcter on it.... tiger... powerpuff girls... so so so cute!! She reminded me of my mom, short, short crazy hair, cute voice : ) I was super excited to catch a baby :) ...

2 am checked her in, contraction were stong... she came back to the bed and started getting really active, randomly push... oh I better finish vitals quick, get the birth cart....2:45 baby out baby boy born "cual birth" head still completely covered in membranes.(4th baby to catch in a caul).... anyways baby comes out double cord coil around the neck, nuchal hand.... and the baby is blue, floppy, lifeless... the baby just folds over my hands.. no cry, no tone... cord pulsing, but nothing... recusitation begins... still nothing O2 given.... PPV again....slight cry high heart rate, chest retractions... suction machine... 10 minutes finally baby is skin to skin with the mom, still with O2 but semi stable.... mother is stable...every few minitues I'm checking the baby... refer the baby or not.... we decided to just monitor..RR 80-90... baby finally started to breatfeed and chest retractions were gone by endorsements...

So I finally got home tried to sleep, debrief a little.. slept for three hours got up went to a coffee shop to work on my assignment.... 3 question done ... spent some time debriefing the births with my roommate via text though skype... praying for each other, encouraging each other....I ended up leaving the coffee shop early and slept another 2 hours.... then around 9pm started working again... well its 2 am and I am finished exept to edit and put in pics...3 am another talk wtih my roommate, gmail phone call home and a blog post later I am ready for sleep... okay another nap... 4-5 hour nap until church :)... then finish my assignment and get it printed... quiz on Monday... oh the life of a midwife... oh the life at MMC... life at newlife... oh how I love it.... Thank you Jesus for your grace, the hope you give, your love, .... mi wala sembe... I am weak... ama...but I can do all things in Christ... a great reminder.... ( my time in Africa, the dream God has given me, to be a midwife, to share the message of his love, hope...to bring hope.... )

life and death.... an amazing thing to see life, a newborns cry.... every time I have to praise the one who created me for giving life, for the life I hold in my hands, the little feet and hands.... to pray over them... as they grow in the womb, as I feel them kick during prenatals... as they come out.... to pray over the family, the baby, the mother....

How can I stop from shouting his name...