Ugh! Delivered Baby On My Own The Other Day...

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Total accident of course. Needless to say the attending was very angry about this.

This was a g2p1 lady. She had a 15-month-old at home. Of course even with an epidural, she had a ton of pressure with her contractions. The resident did a sve she was 10/100/0. Resident said it would be best to labor down so that patient wouldn't be pushing for hours. Patient was confused, miserable and very frustrated of course, practically in tears. I stayed with her for the next hour, helped her through her contractions and checked her again. Still at 0 station. So, I called the resident, can I do a test push with her, she is very miserable. Resident says, "sure, go ahead and start pushing with her, but let her know she can stop and rest if she needs to". So, I document this and start pushing with the patient. Doing a sve at the same time so I could feel if she was moving the baby. Not moving the baby with her pushes yet, so coached her on this. I can feel just minimal movement, and let patient know this when she asked. She asks how long I think it's going to be and I said I think it's going to be a while yet as baby is really not moving. Well, I think this is all the patient needs to hear because with her next contraction, she pushes that baby right on down. The labia begin to spread and I say, "well, awesome! ok, hold on, let's call the doctor to come in." (We use Voceras where I work and I was able to call the resident while I was sitting on the patient's bed). Resident is on her way, she calls the attending as well who is also in house, sleeping (this is 3 in the morning) With the next contraction, patient is not even pushing, the uterus is doing everything. Well, baby is now crowning and is continuing to make it's way out. I call out the room to get some help...Baby was out 30 seconds before resident is in room. Then 30 seconds later attending is in room.

I can't help but feel horrible this happened. The attending is livid with me. "I want to know why I stayed all night waiting to deliver my patient, but still missed the delivery??!!" I went over exactly what happened. I think the resident should have let the patient give some trial pushes when she did her sve and felt the patient was complete and at 0 station. Especially when the patient was so miserable.

I know this may not be the only time this happens, but not sure what else I could have done in this situation?

How did your first deliveries turn out? Any bad situations? Did you get repramanded? I talked to my clinical coordinator and she says, "hey, it happens. It's not the last time it's going to happen."

Usually we call our MDs in when our multip w/o epidural is like 8 cms (and moving fast of course)!! But all pts are diff..just watch out for those multips that can take of at ANY minute!!

It doesn't even have to be a multip. I went to the hospital with a backache with my first child because my mother made me. I was there probably 3-4 hours when my husband came from work and they sent me home because I was closed and only had a back ache with nothing on the monitor. (I'd seen the doc 2 days prior and he said it'll be at least 2 more weeks I'll be on vacation come in and see my nurse next week). My husband drove me home 30 minutes and walking up the steps I thought great now I'm peeing on myself (just a little no gush) I laid down about 30 minutes and tossed and turned then had more water (this is now the middle of the night) called the oncall doc went back in .....oops you're 3 cm now 30 minutes later I said this really hurts if it's going to be that 12 hour average I think I'll take that pain med...well nope you're complete....so had a baby just over 2 hours from being sent home...that same child did about the same thing with her first one but was getting dressed to go home after she hadn't changed and her water broke in the hospital restroom.

But with a history like mine it's a good thing they listened when 3 years later on my 3rd when I was 6 at 1 when 1:30 came I said ok it's time and had a baby at 1:50 and it only took that long because I wasn't pushing waiting on the doc to get there ....he walked in as the nurse caught :)

Just to top off 3 easy deliveries #4 13 years later was a c/s for breech the little rat!!!

If this happened to me (which I know it will) I would freak. Who cut the cord?

I got to deliver my own nephew!

It was my sister's fourth baby and she waited a little too long to come in.

She was 6 cms on admit. Her doc was coming from across the street when her water broke and I got to say hello to my nephew first.

They gave him a male variation of my name for his middle name.

Specializes in L&D, OR, Med/Surg.

I don't know a single nurse on my unit who hasn't precip'd MANY babies. I have done three in the past month alone! We don't have residents, so if someone walks in the door delivering, the nurse is usually the only one there to catch!

All of our community docs live within a couple minutes of the hosp, but as we all know, babies come when they want, no matter who is at the perineum! The only thing we can do is make the best honest effort we can to get the docs there in time. Usually the docs do not get anrgy with us over this issue, but occasionally to save face in front of a patient they may fuss at us.

If there is a high risk patient, the doc will stay in the sleep room, but if there is nothing serious on the unit, they go home and wait for us to call. We have anesthesia 24 hours on the unit, but they wouldn't dare do a delivery! LOL :chuckle

Bottom line....you can only do what you can do! As long as mom and baby are safe and healthy, all is well!! Good job!

Specializes in ob; nicu.

Our nurses deliver babies all of the time. We don't have in-house residents or doctors. We call them whenever we need them and they check in on laboring patients, but like the above said, who knows when the little ones will decide to just pop right on out. It's not something we want to do, but it's something that happens, and you just deal with it.

Specializes in L&D.
If this happened to me (which I know it will) I would freak. Who cut the cord?

The attending made it in in time to clamp and cut. So, even with that, she was still upset.

Specializes in OB/GYN,L&D,FP office,LTC.

Your patient was a multip,she was fully dilated,0stat and the attending was asleep.

She also was feeling pressure with her ctx. I would have let the pt push.

Sorry the doc was upset but he was asleep...maybe staying awake when the

pt is fully is something he needs to think about doing the next time.

I think you handled it well...mom and baby are ok so the only problem I can see

is the doc is embarresed at his slow response time.

Expect the unexpected when working in ob!:yeah:

Specializes in L&D.

Are you not allowed to call the attending directly if there's a resident involved? I'd probably have called the resident and told him to call the attending and come for the delivery. I don't mind if the doc has to sit a little while. I'd rather be scolded for calling too soon than too late. But it happens.

Long ago, doc checked multip feeling pushy and said she was only 7cm and it's not time yet. She delivered before he got his glove off. He did acknowledge that if that exam had been done by one of us and she delivered that quickly, he wouldn't have believed us.

Recently a multip came in at 8/100/0. When I call a doc I usually give a little history on the patient just incase he doesn't remember her in the middle of the night. Gravida and para, GBS status at least. I called this doc and said, "Mrs. Smith is a multip who just arrived at 8cm & 0 station. You need to come in now." He missed the delivery. This particular doc is always upset about missing a delivery so I sent a note to the director about it. Sure enough, he complained to her that he missed it because I didn't tell him he needed to hurry!!! My boss agreed with me that it shouldn't be necessary in such a situation, but from now on I should use the acutal words"Hurry in now".

Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm just a nursing student and have no desire to go into L&D, but we are currently covering this subject.

We were taught that as nurses we are expected to know how to manage an uncomplicated lady partsl delivery in the event a physician is unable to make it in time. We were even taught how do deal with an entangled umbilical cord during the delivery including clamping and cutting it if necessary, as well as external maneuvers in the advent of shoulder dystocia.

Obviously, that's not the ideal situation, but at least we're being trained in this.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

My dear, you could not win for losing. It was a set-up against you from the get-go. But guess what? The patient came out a winner because you did well!

I would look at this as the excellent learning experience it was, and you did an EXCELLENT job. Now let it go!!! Your patient received wonderful care from you.

No more guilt. You can't learn much from guilt.

And you will catch a lot more babies before your OB career is done, ask anyone who has done this for a while. Being calm and in control is the best gift you can give your patient in times like these. They will remember you forever, believe me.

Specializes in L&D,postpartum nursery.

i deliver a baby once with the dr at the nurses station,pt was 8 when dr broke her water and he went out to do paper work, nest uc she moaned and was complete told dr, boke down bed cuz dr was 40 feet away, next push the head was out and the dr was over my shoulder and coached me through the rest, dont feel bad it does happen

Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.

Wow!! I'm just looking at applying at a L&D position, but I am apparently much more naive than I thought, lol!

When I was in labor with my second child, the fam damily was there -- in-laws, my mom, grandmother, etc. The doc told them all to go get some coffee, they had P-LENTY of time. They no longer hit the hall and out popped my daughter!

With my 3rd child, a 9 lb. 9 oz. boy, either the doc or the nurse didn't believe I had a tendency to deliver quickly as the MD showed up right after he had made his big ol' presence in the world. I often wondered if the RN got the delivery fee as she did the majority of the work!

I guess it was silly of me to EVER believe that babies did things in their own time....lol!! I love the response about JCHAO. I work in a facility that does not allow abuse by the MDs in any form. We are encouraged to complain in a heartbeat if they get out of line and they are held accountable for their behavior!

Third child, my 9 lb. 9

+ Add a Comment