Tuesday's Two Deliveries

I worked the day shift on Tuesday. When I arrived there was a woman in labor. This was her second baby. She progressed well throughout the day and I was her main labor support person. She's a sweet, cheerful woman. It was great working with her as she labored throughout the day. At around 4pm she gave birth to a healthy 7 1/2 pound baby boy. Here she is on Thursday morning.
Around 6 pm, while we were just finishing up in the delivery room, my continuity patient arrived in labor. Let me first explain what a continuity patient is.

A continuity patient is someone that I am responsible for caring for throughout pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. I am required to have 3 continuity patients in order to complete my midwifery training. I have had 4 continuity patients in the past that for various reasons all ended up delivering in the hospital. Of course it's mostly unfortunate for them because that means they had some sort of complication - either during their pregnancy or during their labor - that required us to transfer their care to the hospital. But it's also a bummer for me because even though I cared for them for many months, I can't use that experience toward my requirements.

I've been praying (selfishly) for both of my continuity patients (the other is due in April) to have a healthy pregnancy and birth because I really want the opportunity to deliver their babies and care for them afterward as well, and of course, satisfy some of my requirements in the process.

I am happy to say that my first continuity patient (in photo below) delivered a healthy baby girl on Tuesday. Yeah! She arrived at 6pm and gave birth at 9:30 pm. It was the kind of birth I always hope for. She had very strong, effective and appropriately frequent contractions. Her labor progressed normally - quickly even. I was surprised at how quickly things were progressing and how amazing my patient was at remaining calm and in control. She was impressive. Clearly she had done this before. This was her 4th baby. I asked her if her other labors were like this one and she told me yes. I knew her past labors were fast so I knew to be on my toes.

Things couldn't have gone better. She didn't bleed and she didn't tear. She spent all of Wednesday at the clinic then was discharged early Thursday morning. Here she is with her incredibly cute baby girl (Kianna Jee) and husband just before they were sent home.

I really enjoyed working with this woman. As you can see she's quite tiny but thanks to her compliant nature she took my advice on taking vitamins that helped increase her appetite and then ate a lot more than she would have otherwise (including lots of protein!!!). Her baby weighed 6 1/2 pounds. Perfect! She even successfully increased her hemoglobin throughout her pregnancy by consistently purchasing good quality iron supplements and taking them as advised - every day! It's a simple thing but you have no idea how hard it can be to get patients to comply with just this one important thing. She really was a joy to work with.

She expressed an interest in family planning advice (she's only 27) so I'm going to make sure she finds something that works for both her and her husband. If things go as she hopes, she won't be back to our clinic for a while.

Thank God for this new life! Did I mention how cute the baby is?? She has chubby cheeks and when she cries she has a pouty lower lip that sticks out! She feeds like a champ, too!