Change in the way we practice

[DEB52]

I have been an OB nurse for almost 26 yrs. The one thing I can say is that change is going to happen. Babies only come out normally two ways( lady partsl and c/section). But we have found ways to change everything else surrounding the delivery. Most of these changes have been for the good. Others are a matter of opinion.

A couple of examples:

1) All babies used to stay in the nurseries at night. Most babies were bottle fed. Now most babies room-in. Most babies start out breast feeding.

2) IUPC's used to be water filled. You would have to elevate the bed to the level of the IUPC to have it work properly. Now patients can move around freely with IUPC as long as it is secured .

What changes have you seen in OB nursing? It can be from any OB department.

[midwife2b]

LOTS of changes from my first job in L&D (age 20) until now (49 and holding...)

1. Sterile delivery room. Just mom, doc and me. Caps, masks and gowns. Trilene inhalers (inhaled sedation) or some nitrous administered by ME (no ologists or CRNA's).

2. Tie arms down. Strap legs in stirrups. NO EXCEPTIONS.

3. I sterilized all our delivery instruments. We used all glass supplies: including syringes. Reused needles.

4. Circs were done immediately after birth, before the baby left the delivery room. NO anesthetic of any kind. (what a mess!)

5. Dads were usually not present at birth. They waited in the "fathers waiting room".

6. Babies were placed in bassinets on their right sides with the head down for 24 hours to help mucus come out.

7. Some peds wanted gastric lavage on every newborn so they wouldn't spit. So we inserted an OG tube and lavaged with saline. IMHO it did help with spitting...

8. Babies were "shown" twice daily in the nursery. All the relatives gathered in front of the nursery to ooh and ahh over their niece, grandchild, etc. The babies were our property! Only MOMS could touch them. Dads had to gown before the baby came into the room.

9. We cared for primarily farmers, the Amish, and Native Americans. Our breast feeding rates were pretty high. Our nursing moms got a bottle of beer (Genesee or Iron City) each night to help their milk come in.

10. Bottle fed moms got a shot of Deladumone OB as the head was crowning. OR, better yet, they got three days worth of Tace or DES (!)

11. Best of all... if a mom was going to feed her baby Pet milk or goats milk at home, WE MADE THEIR FORMULA FOR THEM!!!

circa 1978... :) (Those were the days !?@%$) :lol2:

0

[luv l&d]

Oh my I remember,

circs in the delivery rm.

iv (anticubital, no iv access) pit with anterior shoulder.

pudentals (wish more would still do them)

trying to guess at when to move a mom to the delivery room so they would not deliver in the hall, or you would not be pushing in the delivery rm for hours

doing recovery, and mopping the floors, and cleaning the instruments and re-set-up all at the same time. one hour time frame

washing, wrapping and re-sterilizing all our equipments.

smoking in the break rm.

buccal pit, iv alcohol for ptl, ritodrine ggts for ptl, terb ggts for ptl,

gosh what else?

[crissrn27, RN]

Being from NC........tabacco country......I remember when you could smoke on the floors.......10 years ago!!

My gram says twilight sleep was the best thing ever........she says we are nuts to want "natural", lol.

I have had lots of folks ask me for the shot to dry the milk up.

I also have had people ask me when we are going to "mold" the head?? What is this? From what I have gathered nurses used to put pressure on the head to shape it, is that right?

They also used to make you use an abdominal binder for a while after birth, my mom remembered that.

She also remembers the shot to dry the milk up, and I can't count the number of times she said (while I was BFing) that she is so glad she never did that, lol.