I just saw the most amazing delivery

romantic, BSN, RN · Sep 24, 2008

Thank you, Eden, for sharing.

I wish I could be there and see it by myself. My preceptorship ended in the middle of April and for me it feels like eternity has passed since.

Kiwimid · Sep 24, 2008

my most interesting birth so far was a fotling breech at 36 weeks, was off to ot for a lscs when she started pushing.....

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 24, 2008

A precipitous face-presentation birth would be right up there for me. It happened about 2 years ago. No doctor, just the patient, her s/o and us nurses. FREAKY.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Sep 24, 2008

The 10lb 11oz baby born over an intact perineum would be up there!

NurseNora, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2008

Pt says she has to push, MD goes in to room to check her. He says she's only 6cm, not yet time to push. Turns around to snap his glove off and into the trash can and she delivers before he gets the glove half off. He had to honesty to admit that if any of us had done the exam and said she was 6 and she delivered that quickly, he'd have insisted the nurse was wrong.

Very busy night, too many patients, not enough nurses. As I'm running (walking rapidly, nurses shouldn't run) down the hall, one of the patients calls out in a very calm controlled voice, "Oh nurse, I've just had the baby." Lifted the sheets, and Yep, there it was. She really sounded like she didn't want to bother me.

Patient comes in the Maternity entrance screaming the baby's coming. Get her on a stretcher and pull her pants down and the bag of water suddenly protrudes through the introitus. It looks like a crystal ball on TV: dark, but you could see the pieces of vervix swirling around in the fluid. All at once she gets another contraction and in an instant that bag was filled with the baby's head. It looked like a magic trick. It's hard to tear the membranes when the baby is born with them still intact.

Multip has to push and does, baby shoots out to the end of the umbilical cord and bounces back to the mom's perineum. We called it the "Bungee Cord Delivery"

The woman who got in the back seat of a two door car for the ride to the hospital because she thought she'd be able to lie down. Got to the hospital and couldn't get out of the car. I delivered the baby in the back seat. That car's resale value went way down--the upholstry will never be the same.

In the old days we used to take a laboring woman to the X ray department for pelvimetry if her labor was not progessing. In my hospital, the X ray department was about a block away and down two floors. In those days women were not allowed out of bed and we encouraged them to stay on their back so we could listen to the baby's heart beat. Moving the woman onto a stretcher, then to the Xray table, to her side for the lateral view, then back to the stretcher often helped the head move into a better position and they were often ready to deliver by the time they got back to L&D, or before. One night my patient had to push while we were passing through one of the Med/Surg floors. I pushed the stretcher into an aparently empty treatment room, delivered the baby, wrapped it up and handed it to the mother to carry for the rest of the ride back. As I was leaving the room, I noticed an old man on a gurney on the other side of the room. His eyes were wide open and staring at us. I waved at him as we left, but no staff member ever saw us. I often wonder if anyone believed him when he told them that someone came in, delivered a baby and left while he was in there.

A patient who was transferred to our Level 3 center at 23 weeks, 4 cm. She was told the baby had no chance at that gestation, but if she could hold out until she was over 24 weeks, it would have a chance of survival. Mom spent a week in steep Trendelenburg on Mag. She got to be fully dilated and they gave her steroids. The docs said the baby would have a better chance if she could hold off for another 24 hours for the second dose. So she did. I cared for her in L&D all day. Finally she was really ready to deliver. Perinatologists, neonatologists, residents, med students, NICU nurses, the room was packed. The baby was born in the intact amniotic sac as the docs wanted the cushioning of the membranes. The nursery team took the baby to the warmer and tore open the membranes and that tiny (490gm) girl said, "Waaa" before they could get a tube in her. Her eyes were still fused shut, but she cried. I saw her 2 years later when Mom brought her back for a NICU reunion and she came over to L&D to see if I was working. That child was walking and talking and not even wearing glasses!! She's the smallest, best outcome micropreemie I've ever had.

I decided to stick with the funny memorable ones, these are just the ones that come immediatly to mind.

elanddeenrs · Sep 29, 2008

Wow, NurseNora, those were really great, I really enjoyed reading them.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Sep 29, 2008

Oh I have a few:

the lady 18 weeks pregnant with twins, twin a had pprom then a prolapsed cord. delivered and passed away. they did a cerclage, then baby b stayed in for 16 more weeks,she came back and delivered at 34 weeks!

The woman on cervidil who had been 1cm. No pain medication. Was contracting. Asked me "would it hurt if i pushed" so i said "oh you need to push?". she was complete. bag of water still intact. the bag was bulging out, big as an apple, out of her lady parts and you could see baby head floating behind it. Hard to tell when to call doc, bag ruptured as the head delivered and the rest of the baby flew out after it. (prior to doc getting there.)

g2p1 8cm. in and out cathed her, while still draining bladder, she says "oh!" and the head comes all the way out to the chin. She says "oh!" again, and the whole baby was out in the bed

g1, 38 weeks, in triage for labor check. closed. Having many ugly variables. decided to keep and induce her. Pit inducion on a closed primip cervix. 2-3 hrs later, she is 2cm, gets epidural. then 2 hrs later, she is 4cm, gets AROM. 45mins later, baby is having the decels where you see them go down, then the external doesn't trace the bottom of the variable, and then you see it come back up. Frustrating, it wasn't tracing well, so i keep adjusting her and the monitor. Getting ready to ask MD for FSE, but prior to this, ask another nurse to help adjust monitor. Picks up FHR reaally low, like pubic hair low. Check her immediately. The head is out almost up to the ears. the pt had no idea. She didn't even push, the baby just oozed out. (4lbs) exactly 1 hr after she was 4cm. nurses deliver, cut cord, take baby to warmer. MD comes in, takes one look at her baby on the warmer, looks over at pt with cord coming out of her lady parts and turns around and walks back out. (he came back 1min later)

The grand multip, induced. Has a history that necessitates passive second stage. She'd had very large babies before. This one delivered with the passive second stage, 10#11oz, OP, with a teeny first degree 1 stitch laceration, it slid out easier than 5 pound babies are pushed out!

the ED called up to say the lady wouldn't get out of her car. Non english speaking. they managed to get her in a wheelchair, brought her up, she delivered in triage, in the common area, before getting into a bay. Doc had to cut off her thong to catch the baby.

Okay, might have to come up with more later

bagladyrn, RN · Oct 1, 2008

The baby born on the way to the hospital down the leg of mom's pantyhose - didn't even run the hose - we all wanted to know what brand they were!

I am afraid though that the poor child may grow up with a compulsion to rob 7-11's and never know why!

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Oct 1, 2008

I had a pt come through at work and she had the most amazing delivery I have ever witnessed, I was not sure she would delivery lady partslly. Her baby was OP, deflexed, asynclitic and had a hand right along side the head. We could see where the doc applied the vacuum at the baby's occiput so there was no doubt about the baby's position. When the vacuum failed they used forceps and baby somehow delivered direct OA, the doc was completely stunned that somehow the baby turned and he just had this funny confused look on his face after the birth.
What is the most unusual delivery you have seen?

It's been an awfully long time since my OB clinicals- I don't understand half of what you said.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 1, 2008

She means:

the baby was in the "sunny side up" position and crooked as well with a hand presented as well complicating things>>>>

the dr put on a vacuum on back of head but it failed so he applied forceps but somehow the baby turned to face down which is the proper position and delivered

does this help?

eden · Oct 5, 2008

Had another one the other day. The pt was at the doctors office for her 39 ish week appointment so he did a routine cervical check. She was 8 cm. He walked her across the street himself and I tried to palpate for a contraction and felt nothing. I asked the patient if she felt anything and she said no. She hopped up on the bed (10 minutes after her inital exam) and she was fully. The doc asked if she had to push and she again said no. He told her to try anyway and baby slid down. As the baby was crowning I asked if she felt anything, her reply was "maybe a little" and baby was delivered just like that. The nursing student in the room was there watching her first birth and I had to tell her that was not normal:D