Let's hear your best birthing stories!

Jaguar Boy · Mar 14, 2008

Hi Micmac. This isn't a nursing birth storey, but is a good one...

My sister-in-law is the oldest of 11 children. Her parents began their family quite young, so are now grandparents twice over in their mid-40's. They LOVE children (you'd have to to have 11! LOL). Being somewhat old fashioned and believing in "doing it yourself", most of the children (with the exception of my sister-in-law) were born at home. The mom is quite a "sturdy" woman, so there were no labour complications, fortunately. The most memorable story I think of all the births was the birth of the youngest. Like her previous siblings, the youngest was born at home with the Dad and my sister-in-law assisting at the birth. The Mom had a great understanding by this point of how the different stages of birth felt. So while mom was squatting, dad was massaging her back and my sister-in-law was giving her a drink of water. Mom knew BABY IS COMING...no one had a free hand, so Mom reached down and caught her new little one herself! She takes great pride and joy in that experience!!!

micmac · Mar 14, 2008

We had a patient walk in one day who had been contracting for awhile. Nurse J. took her to a triage room to change and leave a urine sample and went back to the nurse's station. A few minutes later, another nurse came up to her and said, "You'd better get down there...your patient just delivered in the toilet!". Nurse J. said, "Yeah, funny, haha..." and the other one said, "No, I'm serious!". The pt had no urge to push when she arrived, but when she sat on the toilet, guess what happened? Mom and baby were fine, but poor Nurse J. burst into tears!!! :rolleyes:

rnjustld · Mar 14, 2008

Last week ER called and said they were bringing down a pt ready to deliver. We are thinking "yeah right, what do they know." Here comes the ER nurse wheeling a pt around into the L&D hall. I look down and see a big bulge :uhoh3: in this ladies pants. I run to get a pair of gloves and something to cut the pants with. When I turned back around the ER nurse had already torn the pants open (and apparently these pjs had snaps on the inner side of the thigh area) and was holding the baby in his hands (he was gloved of course). Other nurses got a preciept tray and I clamped and cut the cord. Baby and mom was then taken to an LDR room to deliver the placenta and get the rest of the baby banding and etc done. Now instead of running this pt down the hall in a w/c :nono: I would :idea: the ER :nurse: would have placed pt on stretcher in ER and called L&D to come there to deliver the pt. ER nurse claimed pt was walking down the hall when he put her in w/c and brought her to L&D. There is one catch to that though. At night all pts have to enter thru the ER entrance to get in the hosp. So the pt had to be walking thru ER when placed in the w/c. Go figure :banghead: . Baby and Mom came out without any problems....Yeahhhh!!!!! :yeah:

micmac · Mar 14, 2008

Gotta love those precips...we had a lady deliver while standing at the nurse's station fully clothed...the baby came out of the leg of her shorts and the OB had to jump up from the desk to catch it as it slithered out! The best is that JCAHO was making rounds THAT DAY and we had to clean up the mess pretty darn quick!

kxvc · Mar 14, 2008

When I was a little girl,

I have a vague memory of a woman on a bed screaming her head off while several people were around her, and then her giving birth.

Mom tells me that I woke up that night, proably from the poor woman sreaming, during an emergency delivery. Mom kept telling me to get back in the linen closet, but I wouldn't listen. Instead I stood there wide-eyed watching the whole thing.

Unfortunately for mom the medical director was there that night. He saw me, pulled me out of the closet, and played with me a while. He asked mom if I was her little girl, and mom said yes, thinking she would surely be fired. He never said a word though.

I can't remember anything else from that night, or any other event I may have witnessed while in the linen closets. I do know it made a lasting impression on me bceause here I am today following in my mother's footsteps.

micmac · Mar 14, 2008

When I was a little girl,
I have a vague memory of a woman on a bed screaming her head off while several people were around her, and then her giving birth.
Mom tells me that I woke up that night, proably from the poor woman sreaming, during an emergency delivery. Mom kept telling me to get back in the linen closet, but I wouldn't listen. Instead I stood there wide-eyed watching the whole thing.
Unfortunately for mom the medical director was there that night. He saw me, pulled me out of the closet, and played with me a while. He asked mom if I was her little girl, and mom said yes, thinking she would surely be fired. He never said a word though.
I can't remember anything else from that night, or any other event I may have witnessed while in the linen closets. I do know it made a lasting impression on me bceause here I am today following in my mother's footsteps.

What a wonderful story...thank you so much for sharing it.

rnmomtobe2010 · Mar 14, 2008

I closed my eyes and they were in this world. That is my story and I am sticking to it!!

Jill10191130 · Mar 15, 2008

I've been doing OB nursing for almost 7 years now and at times I'm still moved to tears. One of my favorite memories was of a couple who had been married for 18 years. She was 42 and he was 46. They had been trying to have a baby since they had got married. She had never been able to become pregnant even with some fertility treatments. I don't think they did IVF though, instead they opted for adoption. When they arrived that morning in labor, they had the cutest 2 year old little boy with them that they competely doted over. They had told me during her labor that after they adopted him, they unexpectantly found out that she was pregnant. When she delivered that moring, it was just a wonderful delivery. She cried and he cried. She looked at him and said "finally". They just looked at each other, held each other and cried. I couldn't help but tear up. It's really a great memory.

NurseNora, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2008

A 45ish year old obese primigravida delivered unexpectedly at home. She had primary infertility, not responding to whatever treatments were available 30 some years ago. She and her husband had given up on having a child and went on with their lives. During the evening, the woman began experiencing severe back and abdominal pain associated with nausea and vomiting. Her husband took her to the local free-standing ER where they decided she had Montezuma's Revenge (having just returned from a vacation in Mexico a few days before) and gave her Demerol and Phenergan. Soon she felt much better and her husband took her home. A while later, the pain returned so much stronger that her husband called for an ambulance to return to the ER. She delivered while standing on the front step waiting for the ambulance.

They were so happy!! She swore she never felt the baby move, was only aware of increased gas. Since the baby looked IUGR, it probably didn't move as vigorously as some other babies. Said she had a period every month; much lighter than normal for the last several months, but she thought she was having early menopause like her mother had had. Since she was obese, she really didn't show and didn't have to wear different clothes. This is the only woman who denied knowing she was pregnant that I've ever really believed.

MTRN13 · Mar 18, 2008

A 45ish year old obese primigravida delivered unexpectedly at home. She had primary infertility, not responding to whatever treatments were available 30 some years ago. She and her husband had given up on having a child and went on with their lives. During the evening, the woman began experiencing severe back and abdominal pain associated with nausea and vomiting. Her husband took her to the local free-standing ER where they decided she had Montezuma's Revenge (having just returned from a vacation in Mexico a few days before) and gave her Demerol and Phenergan. Soon she felt much better and her husband took her home. A while later, the pain returned so much stronger that her husband called for an ambulance to return to the ER. She delivered while standing on the front step waiting for the ambulance.
They were so happy!! She swore she never felt the baby move, was only aware of increased gas. Since the baby looked IUGR, it probably didn't move as vigorously as some other babies. Said she had a period every month; much lighter than normal for the last several months, but she thought she was having early menopause like her mother had had. Since she was obese, she really didn't show and didn't have to wear different clothes. This is the only woman who denied knowing she was pregnant that I've ever really believed.

Miracles do happen. What an amazing story. It's nice to hear good things happen.