Welcome to Mother-Baby Musings!

Kyla.ann · Jul 21, 2009

My family owes nurses like you a huge thanks. When my brother was born, the nurse in the room was the one to bring to the Dr's attention that he didn't "look right" He ended up having VSD and was missing his pulmonary valve. He was immediatly life flighted to the nearest childrens hospital and had surgery right away.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for what you do!!

dscrn · Sep 15, 2009

So nice to get a thanks...when a baby is shipped out. all focus shifts to te receiving hsp:yeah:

LuvofNursing, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 17, 2009

Elvish,

Are you starting a blog with it's own address? Or are you trying to start something on this site? i would love to follow it.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Nov 17, 2009

LuvofNursing, it's a blog here on allnurses; however, it has just a few entries, as real life sometimes takes over and I don't get to it as much as I'd like. Thanks for your interest!! :)

StephB1213 · Dec 11, 2009

My heart definently goes out to OB nurses. I am a recent RN grad, an NOT in the OB field @ all! I dreaded my OB rotation, it was horrible to me...I remember the first day on the floor, as soon as I was brought through the double doors, hearing a woman screaming (in pain!!!). I thought to myself, oh lord! Help me through this rotation...In my school we had the luxury of 2 rotations on the OB floor (normal and abnormal preg in final yr). Long story short...please don't laugh! So my patient wanted an epidural- everything was all ready, anesthesiologist (sp?) at bedside and asked me to stay with him to observe...Yippie!! How bad could be be, right? WRONG! I passed out (never have had a problem with any other procedure before!) and before I knew it, the nurses had the smelling salts out and orange juice to my mouth! lol...Why me, how embarassing right?

Well, I truly have an extra love for OB nurses, I know it's such a trying role...I recently lost my 1st baby at 25 weeks, the nurses were so sympathetic and caring. I knew from school what to expect (which made everything worse!) but they made everything so special and meaningful to me and my husband. It's such a hard thing to do and I feel that no matter how many times the RN's see a loss, it never gets better for them. My nurse actually cried with me, which is so awesome to me that she cared that much. On a medsurg floor, its unlikely that would occur b/c they are so slammed with patients that you don't often have time to sit and think.

:redbeatheTHANK YOU TO ALL THE WONDERFUL OB NURSES, YOU ALL SHOULD BE SO PROUD OF YOURSELVES! :redbeathe

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 11, 2009

StephB, thank you for sharing your story. I am so sorry for the loss of your baby and wish you all the best as you start your career. :redbeathe

StephB1213 · Dec 11, 2009

Thank you.... We lost our daughter on 9-6-09 and I am just now able to talk about it with others...

I took my nclex yesterday so cheer me on! haha! After 6 months of being postponed, it's about time I get the show on the road, have a wonderful holiday

CHDad · Jan 2, 2010

My wife and I have very strong and fond feelings for the Nurses, Doctors, NPs, RTs, Receptionists, and everyone else that was with us in the Denver Children's Hospital CICU recently as we went through the birth, surgeries and complications of our 5th and last child of ours. This story is very special and emotional for us. We feel especially thankful for those that were there to save him one night when we almost lost him after his second surgery that was caused by complications post OP. He was born Nov 4th of 2009 with PA/IVS. His pulmonary valve was sealed and his right ventricle was a solid mass of muscle beating against itself under high pressure, in comparison it was the size of a walnut to his left ventricle which would be the size of an orange (his whole heart however was actually the size of a small walnut). We knew he had his before hand around 25.5 weeks and that he was not a candidit for in utero surgery Boston but that didn't make it easier because we didn't know how things were going to turn out. One night was especially hard for our son and us. A few hours after his BT-Shunt procedure he was doing great but around late afternoon his stats started to drop dramatically because of complications with internal swelling and a fold/clot in the BT-Shunt that was sew into the branches of his arteries and with the PDA being sown shut earlier that day, his stats rapidly went down. After an emergency echo at the bed side by our Cardiologist (there were about 20 people around him at this point) it was determined that there was something severely hampering blood flow in the shunt and without the PDA open anymore he needed more care. and quick. After opening up his chest and inspecting the 3.5mm shunt which looked good, he was off to the cath lab to balloon it and a shot of Heparin directly on the clot took care of it. They left his chest open this time with a GoreTex patch sown to his skin. But this was the second time his chest had been opened in 12 hours and the pressure receptor cells in his heart and arteries were having a very hard time regulating how much blood flow went to his lungs and how much needed to go to the rest of his body. Sometimes all of his blood flow would go to his lungs and that would cause his heart to almost stop. Then it would go the other way. That night was one of the most emotionally painful nights I have had to date. At one point they had to do chest compressions on him, but it was really all night that he went up and down. As we watched our newborn son at his bedside in the CICU almost die over and over again it was nice to see how reverent and respectful all of the nurses were to the situation. Many told us that it was ok, that if it was their baby they would be doing the same thing and that ment a lot to me. I have heard many stories on this site of nurses not caring about their own or their patients. But up their it was not that way at least what we could observe and we were there for a 5 weeks. The care that the medical staff gave us and our son was priceless. And has inspired me to want to be a nurse like they were to us and our son during that time. They worked as a team where non was better than the rest and even when he was coding (which he officially did twice that night). There was no shouting (which was odd for me being in the military and accustomed to in times of stress like these) but an erry calm direction from the fellow that was on that night to what seemed the whole bay of nurses at times getting drugs ready and charting what had already been given.

We have thanked them over and over again for all that they did for us. And they will always be special to us and to our son. I remember that night, after our son would have another episode that required drastic changes in is drugs, talking to the fellow at the bedside about his condition and trying to thank him only to be interrupted by our son having another episode with his stats. It was like being forced to watch episodes of ER over and over again and not wanting to but knowing that I wasn't going to even sit down until he was ok. And looking at my wife suffer more that I was, was just about as bad as watching his stats swing up and down. Words can't express how great full we are for them just getting an IV in at times when others had tried and were unsuccessful and he didn't have many veins left. Or seeing the attending and surgeon respond to the fellows page for help knowing they had already been up all day and seeing in their eyes that they didn't mind being there to help.

Until our last child, we had had four children without any problems and we didn't know. But I don't blame us for that or anyone else, because I used to be that person who didn't know, but not any more. My wife and I are so thankful for all that you guys do. We are thankful that there were professionals standing by to fix our son and care for him. Who had gone to school to know how to fix him (something as a father I would have done myself if I knew how but i had a hard time just understanding the Doctor with was was wrong with him). But the thing that touched us the most was how caring everyone was to OUR situation and to us. It ment to world.

Wow that was a long post sorry.

aysia_nadia · Jan 31, 2010

Hello Elvish,

I was wondering if you could pm me. I am currently a Pre Nursing student and I wish to enter the field and do the same things that you are doing, so I have a lot of questions. Thanks

noreenl · Feb 8, 2010

StephB1213!!! OMG! i did the same thing in OB. I was in my first delivery ever! I had just gotten off after working overnight as a CNA @ a big public hospital (RN, 2 LPN and 2 CNA)on a busy med-surg/HIV unit 28 pts. I think I had maybe a cup of tea and a bite of a roll while diving from LI to St Mary's in Bklyn. Everyone was raving how this dr had a zero infection rate and rarely any bleeding issues. What they didn't tell me was she was this tiny little 4 ft 10 filipino woman who had to use a step stool and still all you could see was the top of her head across the table over mama's belly.

This pt was having a CS so I was really interested and she let myself and my partner come in pretty close. Everything went fine for the delivery and then the doctor put down all her instruments and put on fresh gloves and then proceeded to check the uterus for bleeding or whatever, I don't remember tooo much after that because once she raised the uterus out of the pelvic cavity to visualize I WAS OUT LLIKE A LIGHT!

Somehow I didn't hit a single piece of equipment or break sterile field, but I'm told I'm a graceful fainter!!

friecp · Aug 3, 2010

I'm excited about blogging from the trenches of mother/baby. "Why 'trenches?'" you might ask. From the outside it seems as though mother/baby nurses have a cake job and in comparison to some jobs, we just might. But this is nowhere near 'easy.' Spending twelve hours caring for new families, getting/keeping breastfeeding going well, showing new, tired, overwhelmed parents how to care for their baby, making sure said new baby stays well, and any host of other issues are par for the course.
I also work with stable antepartum patients as well as in the newborn nursery. Each of these patient groups brings a set of challenges that is unique. With antepartums, the question is not generally 'if', but 'when' they will 'break.' Getting to know these patients is generally joy but their situations are often heartbreaking as they face a pregnancy with unexpected complications and did not plan on spending weeks on end in the hospital unable to get up except to the bathroom.
When I'm in charge in the newborn nursery, I may not see all 35 babies I'm responsible for but I'm responsible for them nonetheless. Most babies, very fortunately, have no problems and go home as expected. But on the occasion when things don't go as planned, it's my job to catch those things, which may be a subtle as 'this baby doesn't look right' and have to convince a pediatrician of that, or as blatant as having to resuscitate a baby who's quit breathing.
I'm hoping in this blog to convey some issues that nurses in the above fields face, shed some light on common (or not-so-common) patient conditions we face, and questions that we ask ourselves on a daily basis.
Come along for the ride!

Hello! I applaud you for diving into this subject topic. I am primarily an Antepartum RN, however, I frequently get pulled to women's health (med/surg for women), full term nursery, & post-partum care. Currently, our new mother's & their babies each have their own nurses. But, like you said, each specialty comes with it's own unique situations & challenges.

Currently, I am struggling with what the justification & rationale is for being able to pile on 7-8+ postpartum patients onto each nurse per shift. I was told that it's ACOG's standard of care nationally that this can happen. But, I question if the number & rate of c-sections, which are considered surgical procedures like any other surgery, was taken into account whenever this "standard" was written & passed. Times have changed & c-sections are on the rampage!

I am particularly concerned with our facility's outrageous c-section rate & the postpartum care protocol that follows this procedure. I was told that our facility has a c-section rate of around 70-75% (if not higher). I was just wondering if this rate is as common in other places or just ours?

Please know that I have absolutely nothing against having a c-section. I've had one myself. In fact, it's what probably saved my son's life. But, I say use everything in moderation. Anyway, if there's anyone out there that can direct me to ACOG's printed standard of care for the postpartum nurse (specifically regarding they're patient assignments...etc) I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thank you & God bless all of you hard working nurses!