who catches your babies?

Published

Specializes in ob.

I work at a hospital that does approx 1200 births a year. We have LD and Mother Baby--we are assigned to work one or the other each shift. If you are assigned to MBU each nurse is assigned 1st, 2nd, 3rd delivery or admit. When we have a delivery the nurse leaves her assigned patients to go to the other side to catch the baby. It takes about an hour from start to finish all the while the nurses on mbu try to manage their patients and yours too--which sometimes is near impossible with all that goes on. We do not have a well baby nursery. We don't have a cna-each nurse is responsible for her couplets,gyns,long term antepartums. Just curious how this is done at other places. Staffing does not allow for just one nurse to attend all deliveries and not have an assignment.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D.

In my hospital (Level 1, 1100 births/yr), it is usually another L&D nurse who catches the baby. The requirement for us is that at delivery, the mother and baby each get their own nurse, NRP certified for the baby. But the "catcher" doesn't have to stay once the baby is delivered and is good. In my deliveries I typically send the second nurse out as soon as possible so I can get the baby skin to skin with Mom as soon and as long as possible. We need height and weight to admit the baby, so I let the other nurse do that and then put the baby with Mom and send the other nurse back to her patient. Most of the other nurses will let the second nurse do footprints and eyes and thighs before they leave (I prefer to wait until baby has nursed). But even when the nurse stays to do all of that, she is only tied up for 15-20 min tops. It's not hard to recover Mother and baby together.

Of course, if there's a problem with the baby, the "catcher" is tied up as long as necessary to stabilize the baby or send it to the nursery for additional support.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Seems to me an hour is excessive time for catching a baby. Unless baby is unstable and needs special care, really you need no more than maybe 20-30 minutes max. We are a small LDRP unit that does about 65 del/month. Here is what we do. We have nurses who do labor....and others who care for the "floor", e.g., mom/babe couplets, GYNs. The "floor" staff catch babies. It's not a long and drawn out process.

What I do when I "catch" a baby is receive babe on mom's chest, dry/stimulate, and change blanket and place kiddo skin to skin on mom. I apply ID bands and security tag and give meds while babe is on mom's chest. Of course, I take vital signs as well, assigning the required APGAR scores. When done, I turn to my paperwork. I start working on this while mom, dad and baby are bonding and the dr is awaiting the birth of the placenta, repairing any perineal tears, etc. Usually after my paperwork is done, mom and dad are ready for knowing the weight/size of baby. I accomplish this, and take babe to warmer, examine him or her and give the first bath, or let dad do this if he wants to. Then, I put on diaper, nothing more, and put babe skin to skin on mom and help her to breastfeed, if she is ready/wants to.

I clean up my area of the labor room, finish up my paperwork and leave, taking un-needed equipment with me as I go. Like I said, this all takes about 20 minutes, to 30 max. The labor nurse then assumes care of the baby and mom as a couplet, unless one or the other is unstable.

The footprinting is done at night with 2nd weight and PKU/hearing screenings.

Once done, I am now free to return to the floor to my assigned patients, paperwork all done and ready to file. It really works well this way.

And yes, it is correct, you must have an NRP-certified person (nurse, NP, Ped, resp therapist, etc.) dedicated soley to the baby's care at each and every birth to be up to standard! Not doing this is a pretty major liability as you know, a "good" baby on strip can come out quite differently! Seems to me in your situation, the best you can do is find the "least busy" nurse to catch your baby and get her out of there as fast as possible. Like Nora said so well before me, once stable, there is no reason on earth the labor nurse cannot assume care for them as a couplet, and release the "baby nurse" to her other assignments ASAP. This requires a whole lot of teamwork and covering each others' backs to work out, but you really have no choice in order to deliver safe care.

I suggest a meeting of the minds to trouble shoot and figure out a viable solution that allows you to meet standard of care and reduce your stress. Good luck to you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LDRP.

LOL, ya'll mean something different when you say "catch". when you said "who catches the baby" I was going to say the doctor catches the baby!

Now that I know what you mean....

we have a m/b unit that does mostly couplet care, but does have a nursery available. 300 babies (or more) a month. (326 in March, to be specific, thought that includes NICU babies and IUFDs as well). We have a RN a shift who is on the birth team and is called down to all deliveries. I dont knwo what else she does, since i work l&d, but she doesnt have any mothers to take care of.

she is in the room right before delivery (when we call her is when she comes), dries baby (on moms chest!), does heart/lung assessment, baby vitals, weighs baby, dresses baby, o2 and suction if ncessary, bands baby and parents, does security band, too. On occasion, if baby is on moms chest and mom wants to nruse before baby goes to warmer, she'll assist with that (though, that really depends on who the nurse is) They are in the room less than 30 mins after delivery, usually.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

At our hospital, level 2, 1200 births/year the same LDR nurse catches babies and once mom is stables assesses baby. If something goes wrong, nursery gets called in and they take over caring for the newborn. Nursery is present at all section and they are solely responsible for all baby care.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in perinatal.

We do 2000 deliveries, When the pt is very close to delivery, the nurse calls out and a nursery nurse comes to catch the baby. If we have simultanious births than the charge nurse will run in to catch one. Then in a couple of hours if all is well with the couplet they will be transferred to mbu.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion