Close calls...IS there a "guardian angel or delivery God?"

Specialties Ob/Gyn

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

last night there was, at the beginning of my night shift, only one patient in labor....no big deal. looked like a little uterine irritability and occasional "real" contraction...she had just arrived and was telling the evening people "hurts a little" she was 34 weeks and had a h/o ptl with her first child. had been on the unit earlier in the day with similar vague complaints. was never checked...sent home...now i get report ( i am the only delivery nurse on ) and just as the evening crew is walking through the door, the patient tells us she thinks she has to move her bowels and feels a little pressure. still not looking too uncomfortable, but the eve nurses and i, veterans of delivery, all look at each other...we'll hang around, they say....we try to beep the doc.. the heck with him, he isn't calling back and forget the policy of us not checking someone under 36 weeks without prior notification from the doc. we can't find him....he calls back in the midst of the exam...from the huge eyes of the eve nurse, i know it isn't good....7 cms with bulging membranes....too late to ship...we are going to have a baby. an early baby....doc arrives, and eve nurses stay. i have only them for back up..thankyou delivery god! arom by the doc...large bloody..abruption on a 34 weeker....good outcome...baby with some resp problems...had pt come in any other time, who knows what would have happened? i see and experience this more often than not...couple of winters ago during a blizzard, we had someone in labor crash big time during (of course) the night shift. no way anesthesia or any or people on call could get to the hospital on time...but, by some miracle, they had come in just an hour earlier to take a stabbing vic to the or...they were just ready to go and the placement of the knife in the victim was in a non lethal place. he had missed all his crucial organs so could be bumped for our section....baby saved.....i was just wondering how many of you would like to share some stories of miraculous saves and cooincidences that led to them...we had no patients one entire night shift and the incoming doc called by phone to tell us he was on the way. unknown to us, outgoing doc left a few minutes early as it wasn't too busy for the last 10 hours. that puts us roughly at 0630. as i hung up from incoming doc (on his car phone, to which i do not have the number), in comes a pt via ambulance-gravida 7 para6....she is in labor. i look at her pants and ask her what color they are..she tells me white. they are totally red. we have an abruption. i call the call room ( i then find out no one is there and pp tells me the doc left early). nursery has just sent all their babies to the moms. they are now my backup. we have the foley, iv and that stuff done within 5 minutes. incoming doc walks through the door with a mean look on his face. i tell him i swear it just happened...just so happens this early anesthesia is there and ready to go. from decision to incision 12 minutes. good outcome...but if it was any earlier...who knows? for the miracles that happen to us, i have gotten into the habit of thanking "delivery god?" what about all of you? i know you all have similar stories to relate.....and probably not just in ob...seems so much more pressing and crucial in ob somehow, at least to me...

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We had a similar one. When the mom came in the FH showed the baby's rythm was already sinusoidal (I can't spell). She was cut open faster than you can say "C-section". It was a concealed abruption, but the baby and the mom both turned out fine after the blood products and a few nights in the NICU!!! I thought we were going to get a dead baby, there must be a delivery God.

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

I know I am convinced there is.....

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

Ok, to answer my own query.. The other night it was quiet, so they kept one nurse on call and one floated, not to come back for the night. That left Two Rns and one lpn. I was alone on delivery. I got a young patient, an 18 year old primip who was doing ok. I decided to leave the on call nurse at home until I evaluated the pt. Ended up by getting her an epidural and things were going along when I got a "feeling" I had better call in the on call nurse, which isn't something I would normally do but I had shivers go up my spine....She came in and about 30 minutes later we started having a freaky Fh and it finally would not come back even in knee chest so we ended up in the OR with no OR team with the idiot anesthesiologist (they can be SO arrogant) telling the three of us, who could not FIND a fh that the placenta swish we did find WAS fh...Since I had had so much O2 on the patient throughout her labor ( never was thrilled with the baseline), the kid by some miracle came out screaming. What a circus. Had I not had the feeling I should call in the other nurse, who knows WHAT might have happened. THANK YOU DELIVERY GOD!

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Mother/baby, you are all over it-never forget to trust those instincts! Your Delivery God is the same one that watches over all of us, I am sure. You just get to see more of his handiwork on a daily basis!

I'll also bet that Delivery God is the one that gives you the instincts to trust!

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i wish that delivary god was with me when i had my boy.....

maybe he was in the form of a nurse...with mother/babyRN's threads... on the good the bad and the awesome... I really think u nurses in L/D.... are wonderful.... and with the attitudes of the doc's - regardless... I think u are the best....

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

OH yea I am convinced, too. My first year out of school (a trial by fire by any standard)....We had a lady about 6 cm whose baby was looking like Cr@p on the mtr....even an inexperienced green nurse like me could "tell" it did not look good. The whole thing smacked of trouble from the get-go. My every instinct was on alert. Anyhow....

Dr. breaks the water...THICK CHUNKY OH-SO- NASTY MEC..ya know what I mean. *gulp* And then the FHT's take a serious nosedive. O2 on mom, knee-chest position, IV OPEN WIDE, yea we did all we could to help things.

Well my delivery God did His work thru the Nursery nurse, an LPN w/lots of years' experience, LOTS! The dr was very blase about the falling baseline and flatness of the FHT...very blase...basically saying "ah everything is okey dokie, we will see what happens" to the pt and us. This LPN took him outside the door and cornered him against a wall: "what the HELL about that baby leads you to believe EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE??? HUH??? You either get that kid delivered and in MY CAPABLE HANDS, or I call the Chief of Staff!!!!!"

Welp, the Dr. I guess, was convinced to get something done. Baby was delivered by csection.....diagnosis? TRUE TIGHT KNOT in CORD....and I mean TIGHT. EVEN HE TURNED a nice shade of white when he saw it...... HOW THAT KID came out with 7/9 apgars, let alone NON acidotic and/or brain dead we dunno.....But the outcome was good ***shivers***

Me? I just stood by like the green nurse I was, and learned a valuable lesson. Never take ANYTHING For granted...even if the dr says all is "okie dokie"..... I have lots of stories......esp from my first two years like this.

I am CERTAIN "Someone" up There was testing my mettle and teaching me a lot of lessons.....cause I learned well to nothing for granted and am I always vigilant even in a "routine and healthy labor" ....expecting the worst yet praying to God for the best. I love what I do, but am aware it can turn on a DIME.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

what happened, sandstormdust? care to share? i care to listen if you do. ((hugs))

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Specializes in cardiac, diabetes, OB/GYN.

If you CAN"T share your story here, please know that our hearts are with you always....Many hugs to you Sandstormdust....

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

i second mother/baby rn....i absolutely do NOT mean to violate your privacy! we do care tho.....

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No problem.... maybe you can even answer some of my questions...

Three months ago I had my son. The nurses where great... I was in a tough position at the time and they where encouraging and totally supportive. Anyway after 10cm dilation - the nurse called the doctor... the doctor shows up 30 mins later... he comes in and starts talking about me as if I was a slab of meat.... he asks the nurse what Dilation I am at... she says "ten"... he says " can u check again?... she said "I know.. why dont u check???" he said " me check?? I don't wantta check!!!" He leaves and come's back... (I had most of my charts in my hands at one point) and he starts talking about me right there like "Why does it say on her chart -this or that" Asks a couple times "What's wrong with her??? (Albait - it was induced - I was on epi with high does - 15 tries getting the tube in - two spinal taps - with being in five days active labour and water breaking at 2 cm dilation and non progressing - can't he treat me with some respect????) after awhile he starts telling me to do stuff... like push and and then say's Really load "WHY ARE U CRYING..... Why don't u stop???? Can't u stop crying???? "... my legs are shacking like mad.... and he asks "Why u shacking ur legs?" "Can you try to stop them from shaking?" - he keeps coming into and out of the room... sometimes leaves the door wide open sometimes closes it... tells me when to push and then leaves the room.... the intern there asks the nurse if it is normal for docs to come and go. The nurse tells me and the intern his coming and going is totally unprofessional.... he must have left the room 15 + times... he delivers two babies in three minutes...

Is it common for same doc to deliver babies so close together?

Is it common for girls legs to shake while in Labour? I thought alot of girls cried when they where there on the 'table' - don't they???

The way he acted as if I was just a slab of meat with no feelings really hurt. I had a 'perfact' lady partsl delivery... this same doc. insisted that I was miserable and the best thing they could do for me was c-section.

I don't know why but even now whenever I think about it - it makes me sick to my stomach....

The worst part is this Doc. is the diirector of a Maternity Centre. His specialty - Maternity Care. I have three friends who need mat. care and I just don't have the guts to say...GO here... with the fear that this doc.... will treat them like a slab of meat.

What am I suppose to do about it... or is this all normal... whos the a** me or him?????

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Specializes in ER.

Sandstorm

No it is not OK for him to go in and out, or to treat you like a slab of meat. You should find your doc supportive and treating you as a valued team member. Deliveries that close together are unusual- I wonder if there was no one else to help him and he kept going betwwen rooms.

Shaking is normal because your body is going through some massive changes. You could not have stopped it voluntarily and he shouldn't have even asked you to. Crying is OK too, jeepers, this was a lifechanging experience, you were in a lot of pain, working hard physically, and this stranger keeps coming in and poking around between your legs- who wouldn't cry? Especially if you were frightened. (and hadn't slept in days)

He was a bloody nitwit, I'm glad the nurses were good to you- too bad he wouldn't have stayed in that other room and they could have done the whole delivery.

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