Checking dilation and effacement

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Hello,

I was wondering....how do you get trained to check dilation and effacement in OB patients? I want to go in the field and can't imagine what to feel for....now I know that sounds strange....but they don't teach you that in nursing school.....is that crazy question?

Specializes in OB/Gyn.

Sure, babies deliver OP - but it is certainly not the optimal position, requiring a larger diameter of the head to pass through the pelvis than if baby is OA. I agree with one of the other replies - sometimes if the Mom does not have an epidural, you can do more with maternal positioning to assist baby to rotate and come down in a better position. I've also had several deliver OP with epidurals with easy descent and very little pushing. So much has do with the size of Mom's pelvis and no amount of pushing, positioning etc is going to get that baby out lady partslly. An hour and a half of pushing, in my opinion, is a pretty long push. Usually, if I've pushed with a patient for more than 30 minutes or so and we're not moving much - if Mom is comfortable and baby looks good, we talk about "laboring down" and letting the contractions do the work for an hour or even sometimes more. I love it! Babies often will come right down, avoiding hours of pushing for Mom resulting in exhaustion and a bottom that is much more swollen and sore after delivery. What about you guys - do you labor patients down often where you work?

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
What about you guys - do you labor patients down often where you work?

Our L/D does a LOT of laboring down; they'll say a pt is ant lip when she's really complete just to keep the docs out of there.

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Specializes in L&D.
What about you guys - do you labor patients down often where you work?

Yes, we labor patients down all them time!

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