Altalorraine

It does sound heavy to me. After all Nicu is an *ICU* which should mean a limited patient load for each nurse.

I agree with the previous poster. During a vacuum attempted *vaginal* delivery, everywhere I've worked allows three pop offs before proceeding to cesarean, but since cesarean is the ultimate procedure for delivery, as many pop offs as needed to deli...

When a preterm patient (not in labor) ruptures her membranes and fetal heart rate drops significantly and does not come back up after turning patient, what would you do (other than call for doctor to come to room, O2 and fluids open). AL

Let me start by saying that I have no idea who your CNAs were, but I've noticed something similar with a lot of older African-American women, including grandmas and great-aunts, who tend to be very concerned that the baby is "hungry" (including the u...

NOWHERE in my post did I say she has to do as I do. I have to wonder if you even read what I wrote. I said nothing about forced fertility. If she doesn't want a child, she shouldn't have one. Period. Words like "torture" are inappropriate here. ...

What are you seeking here? Advice on how you, as a grown woman, should handle your mother? That has nothing to do with OB nursing. I do not change my opinion that someone coming to this site to discuss how disgusting birth is (in general terms sinc...

I don't understand how you are not talking about treating. Where I work our docs will hold hour-long rounds to decide how to treat a PTL patient. I don't know what useful thing can be done in hurry other than BMZ (which I suggested) and perhaps ma...

I guess I'm trying not to be offended by your description of birth as bad and horrible and your wondering why women would want to go through it. Clearly you *don't* understand the mentality of women who do it. My four natural births were the most w...

I think what you really should have is a close working relationship with an OB care center so they can direct the care of patients from a distance. I don't think people not in an OB speciality should mess around with treating OB cases on their own; ...

I had drug-free, epidural-free births four times. Each experience was very different. But what gets me is that people start listing the reasons that my births were easy and their births were so hard so of course they had to choose epidural. The r...

I think the state of the cervix is usually how they judge who can get an epidural where I work. Having an epidural for a long time isn't good for you, and someone who is going to poke along at 1 cm for hours to a day like some inductions do is going...

What you should do is take him aside and tell him privately never EVER speak to you that way again. Once you make that clear, you can indicate your willingness to work with him to establish a protocol for how he wants you to handle his patients. I w...

We don't treat ruptured term patients with abx unless/until they're showing signs of infection. Pretermers who are ruptured routinely get a course of IV Ampicillin and then are switched to po. I don't remember the duration of the course of abx thou...

Me neither. I think L&D experience would be very helpful. We do a fair number of abortions where I work, some therapeutic, some genetic (not one of the wonderful, miracle-of-birth loving OB nurses on our floor refuses to take these cases). A lot ...

I haven't followed up on placental pathology reports, so I have no idea of the true incidence where I work; however, it's more than just a lot of elevated temps and tachy babies. We see a fair number of foul-smelling babies. As for why, I suppose ...

That's astonishing. Where I work chorio is as common as dust bunnies. That can't be a good thing. Altalorraine

I think you are making a lot of assumptions about what I'm saying. I said nothing about strict adherence to birth plans or conspiracies. I'm not anti-epidural. If someone wants an epidural, more power to her! My original post was not about epidural...

Sounds to me like the typical L&D game of finger pointing is going on. If you, as the intern had erroneously told the patient to push, why couldn't the doctor and the nurse in the room say, "No, wait, don't push." This isn't your fault. Perio...

Since I agree with you, I can't really figure out what it is you think I'm telling her. Preparing yourself and arming yourself with the tools you need to manage labor is important. Saying, "I'll wait and see" greatly decreases your chances of a su...

In my opinion, with this kind of attitude you're not going to end up with a natural birth. In this day and age, a natural birth happens as a result of a deliberate decision (or a precipitous delivery at home). Women often say, "I'll wait and see." ...

Midwives are not simply the female version of the OB. Midwives have traditionally been older, experienced women who help women through childbearing through skill and empathy. Having had children is an asset for a midwife, but not a requirement. Th...

Everyone gets one because we have a moronic NPO-during-labor policy. The well educated patients using the midwives are sometimes able to get away with a hep lock and po juice. Altalorraine

What is your unit's policy on Venodyne use for non-stat sections? Do you put them on and have them turned on during the section or do you do it immediately afterwards in recovery? Does anyone have any references for me? Altalorraine

I got a job in L&D right out of nursing school. The best thing is the nurses I work with. The worst is being treated badly some of the doctors I work with. I work in a high-risk unit in an urban hospital; there are not a lot of warm and fuzzy ...

Considering that there is no evidence that outcomes are better with the use of EFMs, your patients should be just fine with intermittent monitoring. Are your staff NRP certified? Altalorraine