Mother-Baby Musings

Elvish is a nurse on a unit that houses mother/baby, newborn nursery, gynecology and high-risk stable antepartum patients.

This blog will generally focus on nursing issues related to any one of the aforementioned areas. This may come in the form of resources, guidelines, or discussions. It's my pleasure to shed some light on a field of nursing that I dearly love.

6 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Welcome to Mother-Baby Musings! from Elvish - I'm excited about blogging from the trenches of mother/baby. "Why 'trenches?'" you might ask. From the outside it seems as though mother/baby nurses have a cake job and in comparison to some jobs, we just might. But this is nowhere near 'easy.' Spending twelve hours caring for new families, getting/keeping breastfeeding going well, showing new,... Last Reply by Elvish Nov 17 08:59 AM   4 comments   860 views
17 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Family-centered Maternity Care and Rooming-in from Elvish - A thread in the Ob/Gyn nursing forum got me thinking about this. Family centered maternity care (FCMC) is a buzzword that's no doubt quite familiar to many in maternal/child nursing circles. In my almost-eight years as a nurse - not long in comparison to many of my colleagues - I have seen several hospitals in my area make the switch from all... Last Reply by dscrn Sep 15 06:16 PM   21 comments   1,607 view
8 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Some quick tips for a good latch from Elvish - For moms who are breastfeeding, a good latch is supremely important. If not, nipple pain will soon ensue - even if the improper latch is held for just a few minutes, those few minutes can have a long-lasting effect. Additionally, if the baby's mouth is not wide open with enough breast tissue in the mouth, he will not get the full amount of milk... Last Reply by CityKat Jun 30 02:25 AM   1 comment   742 views
12 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Postpartum Mood Disorders from Elvish - The postpartum period - just after giving birth - is, for most a time of happiness and adjustment to new family roles. However, for some women it is a time of overwhelming sadness, anxiety, and inability to cope with the stressors at hand. Postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis are mood disorders that affect approximately 10-20% of new... Last Reply by pnbsmom Apr 29 07:32 PM   12 comments   1,448 view
17 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings When the mother is in prison from Elvish - The hospital in which I work has a contract with our state wherein all pregnant prisoners deliver at our hospital, regardless of home county. This population has a special set of needs to consider. Prisoners get a very short hospital stay - for a normal vaginal delivery, the woman goes back to the prison the next day, most often in under 24... Last Reply by Elvish Apr 29 10:27 AM   8 comments   1,045 view
4 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Hypoglycemia in the newborn from Elvish - Hypoglycemia in newborns, as with adults, can be a medical emergency and in any case needs immediate treatment. At particular risk are newborns whose mothers had gestational diabetes (GDM) or prepregnancy type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus. My particular facility has standing orders to check a heelstick blood glucose on any baby whose mother had... Last Reply by bestbabynurse Feb 13 02:39 AM   3 comments   1,583 view
10 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Care of mothers with babies in intensive care from Elvish - I work at a facility with a level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and it's my estimate that roughly (this is purely a guess) one-third of the mothers in my care have delivered babies that are in the NICU for whatever reason. Some of their physical assessment may be different (not by much) but the emotional aspect of their care is far... Last Reply by midnitelpn Jan 30 10:32 AM   7 comments   1,816 view
5 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Late Preterm Infants (Part 1) from Elvish - Late preterm infants present a special set of challenges for the field of maternal-newborn nursing. The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) defines a near-term infant as one born between 34 and 36 completed weeks' gestation. While still considered premature, these infants are often under the care of a well-baby... Last Reply by jillianrae Jan 07 05:52 AM   1 comment   709 views
2 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Long-term antepartum care in the hospital from Elvish - Care of the antepartum patient that's on your unit for an extended length of time can be a huge challenge, both for staff and for the patient. These are women who, for whatever reason have a pregnancy complication that cannot be managed on an outpatient basis. Diagnoses can range from preterm labor to premature rupture of membranes to placenta... Last Reply by Elvish Jan 06 06:41 PM   8 comments   1,777 view
1 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Late Preterm Infants (Part 3) from Elvish - Apologies for the long hiatus! I have not forgotten that we were last on the subject of late pretermers and hyperbilirubinemia; this time it's late pretermers and breathing. Obviously, one can't survive extrauterine without oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange in the lungs, whether by natural respiration or mechanical ventilation. There is never a... Last Reply by Elvish Dec 16 09:16 PM   No comments   420 views
1 Push It!	Mother-Baby Musings Late Preterm Infants (Part 2) - Hyperbilirubinemia from Elvish - This next entry deals with hyperbilirubinemia and jaundice in the late preterm infant. Just to recap, late preterm as defined by AWHONN is an infant born between 34 and 36 completed weeks' gestation. During the antenatal period, fetal hemoglobin levels are necessarily higher than postnatal. Increased hemoglobin is needed to carry oxygen from... Last Reply by Elvish Oct 14 03:12 PM   No comments   649 views

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