RNmama05

If there is no sign of PTL, most of those with shortened cervical length go home and have weekly or semiweekly u/s scans to monitor the cervix. We do fFN too, so the results of that may factor into the decision to keep a patient or to send her home....

A shortened cervix, diagnosed by transvaginal u/s, is treated with Indocin therapy which has been shown to "reconstitute" the cervix. The issue of a short cervix becomes less critical as the pregnancy progresses- by 34 weeks, it's pretty irrelevant...

Where I work (a relatively small unit) the number of procedures per day is limited by the amount the anesthesiologists feel like doing, not whether there is enough nursing staff. We frequently have two scheduled sections per day along with varying c...

If the attending wants the privilege of charging for the delivery the attending darned well should have been there at the patient's bedside. There is no reason at all for you to feel bad. Quick deliveries happen, and anyone with a day of OB experi...

It has to be the person who is directly caring for the baby. Apgar scores are *real time* assessments of the status and level of care the baby needs *now*. They really aren't supposed to be assigned retrospectively.

Do Not Give Up. *Everyone* was new at one time. It's painful and sometimes humiliating to be the new kid on the block, but that's how everyone starts out. While no one deserves to be yelled at or humiliated, nothing is going to change that kind o...

I think the fact that she is an L&D nurse is beside the point. She is an annoying, intrusive mother first and foremost.

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Mention that though you expect to function fully independently, you look forward to working as a team.

Our OB residents use them, our midwives generally don't. I think it's about provider training and convenience more than anything- and fear of shoulder dystocia.

We are *required* to monitor the babies during epidural placement. Sometimes that means requesting an ISE before the epidural, sometimes that means that another nurse has to come in and crouch down under the stand that the mom is leaning on so that ...

Give it at least a year before you decide whether you really hate it or whether you just hate the new experience and being at the very bottom of the learning curve. Being a hospital L&D RN *is* very different from being a birth center RN or a dou...

My first thought is: How do you know the resident was right and you were wrong? Vaginal exams are very highly subjective. Station (descent), dilation and effacement are related but independent processes. A baby can descend into the pelvis and pres...

We're not allowed to give medical advice (or comment on the care someone is receiving which might be construed as medical advice), but a simple google search will give you a lot of information about Pitocin.

At our hospital we do terminations for genetic reasons, even into the second trimester. We also get a lot of ruptured patients (previable) transported in from elsewhere, multiple gestations with some demises and others alive whose parents opt for te...

that's good to know. unfortunately, the definition of "imminent danger" does not include a ruptured 16 weeker who becomes septic later.

We get occasional transports from Catholic hospitals of patients with rupture and a live fetus at 16-20 weeks. Sometimes they're septic with ARDS (40% mortality in such cases). So yes, we do see live fetuses before termination.

An excellent role model.

For-profit hospitals are businesses. So are insurance companies. Their primary concern is the bottom line. I'm not defending it. It's just doesn't occur to me to ask "why do hospitals cater to OB patients and not other patients?" I know why they ...

? Why would they do that since "freebies" are a marketing tool?, i.e., they are designed to encourage people with money to bring their money to that particular hospital instead of a different one.

Giving gifts is not about doing good deeds. It's a marketing tool.

I think birth plans are rather silly except for your own use to guide your own decision making. Nurses know that people download birth plans from the Internet; they're pretty meaningless. If you want or don't want something, just say so. I think ...

It's funny, but I've never heard anyone brag about natural labor without drugs. What I do hear is people who choose not to go drug free getting really defensive about their choice and complaining about how they're "made" to feel bad about it.

I'm amazed! We don't do nuttin'. As a university hospital our moms come to us because they have to because 1) they're too poor to go anywhere else; 2) they're too sick or high risk to go anywhere else.

I've had pleasant experience with birth doulas, but I find they are absolutely shocked to find out that I know something (A LOT) about normal birth and am very supportive of women who want a natural birth. It turns out that many of the nurses where ...