The STRESSFUL SITUATION NEWBORN

[Klaudia Langa]

Hi everyone,

I'm a fairly new midwife and I recently experienced a situation that has stayed with me emotionally.

 

It was a healthy term newborn, feeding well, waking every 2–3 hours, no red flags.

Around the 40th hour of life, the baby suddenly developed tremors and brief eye-rolling.

We checked the blood glucose immediately — it was very low.

The baby was treated quickly with glucose and feeding, recovered well, and has been completely fine since then. Medically everything was managed correctly and there were no signs beforehand that something was wrong.

But the image of that moment — the tremors, the eyes — still comes back to me.

Every time I think about it, I get emotional, sometimes even tearful.

 

I also worry a bit because I'm still young in the profession and I fear someone might think I missed something, even though I know the episode was unpredictable and typical for day 2.

 

I wanted to ask those of you with more experience:

Have you ever had a newborn event (hypoglycemia or anything sudden) that emotionally stayed with you for a while?

How did you process it?

Did it get easier with time?

 

I'm not looking for judgement — just honest experiences from others in the profession.

Thank you for any insight or reassurance you can share.

 

[CFitzRN, ADN]

It sure sounds to me that you did everything right and in a timely manner. The fact you were so affected tells me you are a good and conscientious midwife, and one I'd have loved to have with me during/after the births of my 4 sons.

I worked mother/baby for several weeks after graduating nursing school so I was pretty closely monitored and didn't experience anything as visually scary as that.

My own grandson struggled badly after birth though, and spent a week in NICU. He was really struggling with his respirations. No one was too sure why. That was frightening. I prayed over him whenever I'd go spend time w him in the hospital. He is now a beautiful, smart, healthy 6 year old boy. 

I'm guessing your pt was a breastfed baby and likely wasn't properly latching, or mom wasn't making adequate colostrum? It happens. At least you were on top of monitoring well enough to treat the issue quickly with no repercussions.