the face
i feel lucky to enjoy my work. many people do not have that luxury. i am thankful that after fifteen years of delivering babies, i still have a sense of wonder at the miracle of it all.
i’ve delivered well over a thousand babies in my time as a midwife. i still keep a log of all of my births. ( yep. just a little compulsive.) i record the pertinent info - mothers name, date, baby info and any little tidbit that stand out. some births i still recall in great detail no matter how many years pass. last night i had one of those nights.
when i am working on labor and delivery, my job is to precept the resident physicians. that means that i am teaching the doctors in training how to catch babies and hopefully imparting some wisdom that you can’t learn in books. my goal is always to keep the normal, normal. there is also a physician on with me so there are three of us at any one time, plus a medical student most nights. our service is very busy . for me to do three to four births or more on a shift is not unusual.
last night was pretty busy and the resident and i were taking care of someone who had been pushing for a long time. we called the MD to come and evaluate her for an assisted birth ( vacuum delivery). in the middle of all that, another woman came in who was gonna have a baby soon so i left to take care of her.
she was a very sweet spanish speaking woman having her second baby. my labor spanish is what i call guerilla spanish so i was thankful that her husband was there and spoke great english. she wanted some pain medication, but it was too late for that. when i examined her i felt what seemed to be a nose. not what you expect!
hmm. better make sure it is not a foot masquerading as a nose. nope its a nose. so i went out to tell the doc that i had a face presentation just to let her know. face presentations are very rare. in 15 years , i had seen and delivered only one. if the chin is oriented up, the woman pushes well and her pelvis is what we term ‘adequate” the baby will delivery vaginally. if the chin is down the mechanics of the head and pelvis do not work for delivery and a c section is done.
the doc and resident were still busy so i said i would break her bag of water and see what happened.
i broke her bag of water and soon she began to push. in minutes i could see the baby’s lips . very very weird. soon after her lips appeared her nose and face appeared. think popeye and olives baby with a hat on. the baby was smacking her lips as she came out.definitely not what i normally see as i catch a baby. literally minutes after she began pushing, the baby was out- wrapped up i her cord with lips like angelina jolie and very swollen eyes.
one of the nurses put it well when she said it was all she could do not to laugh as the baby came, because it was so weirdly fascinating.
i’ve delivered well over a thousand babies in my time as a midwife. i still keep a log of all of my births. ( yep. just a little compulsive.) i record the pertinent info - mothers name, date, baby info and any little tidbit that stand out. some births i still recall in great detail no matter how many years pass. last night i had one of those nights.
when i am working on labor and delivery, my job is to precept the resident physicians. that means that i am teaching the doctors in training how to catch babies and hopefully imparting some wisdom that you can’t learn in books. my goal is always to keep the normal, normal. there is also a physician on with me so there are three of us at any one time, plus a medical student most nights. our service is very busy . for me to do three to four births or more on a shift is not unusual.
last night was pretty busy and the resident and i were taking care of someone who had been pushing for a long time. we called the MD to come and evaluate her for an assisted birth ( vacuum delivery). in the middle of all that, another woman came in who was gonna have a baby soon so i left to take care of her.
she was a very sweet spanish speaking woman having her second baby. my labor spanish is what i call guerilla spanish so i was thankful that her husband was there and spoke great english. she wanted some pain medication, but it was too late for that. when i examined her i felt what seemed to be a nose. not what you expect!
hmm. better make sure it is not a foot masquerading as a nose. nope its a nose. so i went out to tell the doc that i had a face presentation just to let her know. face presentations are very rare. in 15 years , i had seen and delivered only one. if the chin is oriented up, the woman pushes well and her pelvis is what we term ‘adequate” the baby will delivery vaginally. if the chin is down the mechanics of the head and pelvis do not work for delivery and a c section is done.
the doc and resident were still busy so i said i would break her bag of water and see what happened.
i broke her bag of water and soon she began to push. in minutes i could see the baby’s lips . very very weird. soon after her lips appeared her nose and face appeared. think popeye and olives baby with a hat on. the baby was smacking her lips as she came out.definitely not what i normally see as i catch a baby. literally minutes after she began pushing, the baby was out- wrapped up i her cord with lips like angelina jolie and very swollen eyes.
one of the nurses put it well when she said it was all she could do not to laugh as the baby came, because it was so weirdly fascinating.
posted by chris at
1:58 PM
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