I'm having a disagreement with someone about this and wanted input from current L&D nurses. Is it standard procedure to have a foley with a laboring patient that has an epidural?
I worked in L&D for years (but haven't for the past 18years), and unless mom had been laboring for a long time and needed repeated straight caths, or was a likely c/s, we rarely put a foley in. We did straight cath some patients, but not the majority from what I recall.
I've had epidurals with 6 of my own kids, and was straight cathed twice, but also had pretty short labors.
So, what percentage of your epidural patients get straight cathed? How many of them get a foley?
All of our patients automatically get a foley catheter with an epidural. We remove it when she's complete and ready to push.
This is the same policy where I work. They have 6 hours to void after the foley is removed, or they get straight caths. I think the reasoning behind straight caths is to decrease risk of bleeding, but not sure.
This is the same policy where I work. They have 6 hours to void after the foley is removed, or they get straight caths. I think the reasoning behind straight caths is to decrease risk of bleeding, but not sure.
I uterus doesn't contract well with a full bladder.
Unless the mom is going fast after the epidural, we do a foley. For those of you that do straight caths, what is the reason behind this policy? Isn't repeated in and out caths introduce more infection than a short term indwelling? Also seems more cost effective to do an indwelling since an in ad out can only be used once for sterility. I am always interested in doing Evidence based. We just don't see that many epidurals in the hospital based birth center that I work at, less than 20%
straight cath's are associated with lower CAUTIs I believe. The only patients that routinely get a foley are are section patients.
and I think its awesome that you have such a low epidural rate! How refreshing!
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carrie_c
235 Posts
This is the same policy where I work. They have 6 hours to void after the foley is removed, or they get straight caths. I think the reasoning behind straight caths is to decrease risk of bleeding, but not sure.