Zhlake

I wondered the exact same thing about PPD. It is just very aggrivating for many of the nurses. We are so used to the women getting more and more independent before they leave. And then this culture pampers and dotes over the women so much more. Any time one of them goes to get out of bed, 3 of their friends will rush over to them to help them out. It causes a lot of eye rolling among the nurses, but I really think we need to change our perspective on that. In fact, one of the nurses was joking that the "entourage" had arrived the other day. 5 women came in to a patient's room after delivery. They were brining hot tea, food and of course an incredible amount of support. I said, "I wish I had an entourage after I had my babies!"

Oh they are very modest even with us also. And it is nearly impossible to do a fundal check. They grab our hands and say no. And I don't mean the aggressive massaging to get blood to flow, I mean just a quick check to see where it is at. I had a c/s patient the other day and we told her that the CRNA would be a man. She asked if we had a female available and we said no. She was flexible with that and it wasn't even an issue. We recieved some information from the Muslim Center in KC that they will prefer female caregivers but in emergencies or if none is available they will accept a male.

Our experience has been different than yours so far! They have kept their hijabs on but have taking off the rest of their stuff. All of them so far, (we have had quite a few) have had the female circumcision. Varying degress of such. One was very easy to get a foley in, and one was exceedingly difficult. The issues seem to be regarding infant bonding and also the mother's self cares after delivery. None of the patients we have had are interested in holding their babies. At all. In fact, they act almost angry when you ask them to hold the baby. Then, the nurses feel like the patients are very demanding and rude to them in the postpartum area. I feel like that probably relates to the language barrier, but it is leaving a very bad taste the nurses' mouths. The patients also do not want to get out of bed and very dependent on the nurses for every little thing. I have seen this with other cultures (female family members really pampering the mothers and the mothers doing very little) so I understand where this is probably coming from, but it is just opposite from our Western experience of encourage mothers to do things independently.

I am wondering if any of you have experience with Somalian culture and childbirth. I work LD/postpartum/nursery and our small town has had a huge influx of Somalian workers. This transition has been very rocky in our unit, even though we are very accustom to working with other cultures (nearly half of our deliveries are hispanic). I am trying to do some research, but am not finding much. Any input appreciated!

I was talking with a nurse on the OB floor the other day and she was telling me a story about a baby who had been in special care for bradycardia. She just kind of mentioned that when some babies are bradycardic, they check mom for RA factors and that sort of thing. They found out mom had lupus. She was telling me a rather long story and this was just sort of in passing. I didn't have a chance to ask her to expand on this. I had never heard of this, but it reminded me of my brother. His heart rate was 70's or so after birth so he was evaluated by a cariologist when he was a few weeks old. Nothing ever came of it, but mom found out she had RA 2 years later. I told her this story I had heard and she had never heard of that link either and she was intrigued. She was a labor nurse and then worked in an OB/GYN office so I was surprised that she didn't know about this. I called my sister who works in a large metro hospital in OB and she hadn't heard of this either. She thought maybe this link was more related to older babies (>3 weeks old or so) and maybe that was why none of us was familiar. Anyone else heard of a link between baby's bradycardia and RA/lupus type syndromes?

Yesterday I had an annual OB skills day and one of the things we do is review strips of interesting cases throughout the year. Every year there are a couple of stillbirths that are reviewed. Does anyone else hate doing that? I mean, I understand the learning potential that is offered, and appreciate how much I do learn from them....but it bothers my heart so bad to see them. Like I am "watching" a baby die. I literally just feel sick the whole time. I guess what I am saying is that my head likes to learn from that, but my heart just aches the whole time. Anyone else have a hard time with that?

I clocked out 20 min before I was a patient (clocked out for an appt and had to go straigt back due to bad NST) and 7 hours before I delivered. I was 6 cm dilated when I was first checked. Couldn't believe I was walking around like that all day! I had decided to not stop at all before I delivered. I delievered at exactly 41 weeks, so I was really happy I hadn't taken off early. I wanted to spend all my FMLA time with my babe!!

I am a lactation consultant at my hospital. We did a process improvement on getting babies to the breast. After some education, our average time for vag deliveries was 28 min from birth until first freeding. For c/s it was 30 min. Only 2 min difference!! I couldn't believe it. Basically as soon as mom leaves OR and gets in the recovery room, they put baby to breast. Baby only goes to NSY if there is a problem.

Sorry to nitpick...but you can drink coke while breastfeeding. Some babies are very sensitive to caffeine, but I always advise moms to drink caffeine in moderation if desired, just like during pregnancy.

Yeah we don't have nurses who only do labor. We all do labor, special care nursery, well nursery, postpartum and gyn surgical. And if we float to all other areas of the hospital if needed. Now that is what really sucks!

Well that is what happens when you work in small hospital!! There are many many hospitals that deliver far less than that.

We never do foleys either.

We have something like 500 deliveries a year, so some times we go several days without any new babies and then of course we have other days when we have 4-5. Either feast or famine. You know how that goes.

I am a labor nurse and I doula with my second labor. She was worth her weight in gold!!! I loved the support I got from her and would highly recommend a doula to anyone. We worked together extensively during my pregnancy. She talked to me in length about my last labor and how I felt like that went. She also talked to me about comfort measures that I would like to try, and others that I wasn't interested in. We discussed the book "Birthing from within" together. I have a very supportive husband, but the doula was just that added boost of support. I got to pick which labor nurse I wanted, so I let her know I was having a doula, and we got to talk about everyone's roles beforehand. My doula told me that she would not discuss any procedures with any medical staff. If I had questions or wanted to discuss things with my doula, she would do that, but I had to be the one to talk to the medical staff.

ITA with Bets. I have seen some with reductions breastfeed with very little difficulty at all, and then others that have had to supplement quite a bit. Hook up with a good LC so that you can have regular follow up while breastfeeding. It will help put your mind at ease.