I am just starting in out in a much sought-after, much anticipated job as an L and D nurse, where I hoped to gain the foundations of a potential future career as a CNM. And.....
I am way disappointed.
From what I am seeing, this unit resembles an ICU or ER much more than I ever would have thought. Crisis situations are so frequent, I am wondering if anyone has a "normal" birth ever? I have seen a few, but (maybe it is because these ones are leaving a greater impression, at least at this point) it truly seems that more often than not, something goes wrong. If the birth doesn't end in an emergent C section or a traumatic vacuum, there is at least a significant period of time where it absolutely seems that it will. I already feel like my nerves are fried.
We work with a lot of midwives- I would say more than half of the deliveries are attended by midwives (or the labors are until the sh** hits the fan and OB has to rush in to the room), and our C section rate is actually low compared to the rest of the country. So I don't think that I work in a necessarily over-medicalized or overreactive environment. It just seems like things never go smoothly.
I asked one of the nurses who had been there for 20 years if it had always been like this, and she emphatically shook her head no. So what is the deal? And another thing it has me thinking: how are home births or even birth center births EVER safe when it seems so common for a healthy, uneventful pregnancy to turn into a code blue-like delivery?
Maybe some practicing CNMs or more experienced L and D nurses out there can give me some perspective. Thanks.