Beginning Maternity Rotations

I now have 3 weeks of Maternity under my belt. My first clinical day I was in Postpartum. My preceptor nurse was absolutely adorable, in fact, she kind of reminded me of my mom. She taught me things in a slow, concise manner and was very supportive and fun. One of my patients was 19 years old who only spoke Spanish and was discharged that day, despite that fact that her baby's bilirubin (product of the liver) was very high.
My other main patient was a 26 year old woman who had delivered 3 hours prior and had a history of opiate use. She claimed that she had quit 2 years ago, but she continued to smoke half a pack a day throughout the pregnancy. When we assessed her baby, there were many signs that the baby was going through withdrawal. Rigid muscles, fairly small, and incessant crying. The mother had had about 3 times as many opiates during the delivery as most people do, which also led the medical team to believe that she had already been using. We took a sample of the baby's meconium (first bowel movement of the baby-it's really gross) and sent it to the lab for testing. I left for the day before the results came back. But even if it comes back negative, how can anyone smoke during pregnancy these days?? Apparently, research shows that 1/2 a pack or less a day won't adversely affect the baby, but I just find that hard to believe, and I'm sure it wasn't always under a pack a day.

The University hospital is a "baby-friendly" hospital which few hospitals get acknowledged as, which means that they try to keep the baby in the room with the mother as much as possible and strongly encourage breastfeeding and a lot of mother-baby bonding. This mother did not try to help with diaper changes, and really didn't look over at her baby when we had it in the room. These are key signs of postpartum depression and we had to alert social work. The mother said she was just really tired and would care for the baby later. When we asked her to breastfeed a couple hours later, she asked us just to give her baby the bottle in the nursery...not a good sign. After a 6 hour nap, the mother finally woke up and tried breastfeeding. Do you know how awkward it is for me to just stand there and watch this random woman do this? I kind of didn't want to stare at *that* but I'm suppose to...and it was just pretty weird. Also, pushing my hand into a woman's stomach to feel the top of her uterus is also kind of weird. Maternity patients just seem so different to me because they aren't sick, and I felt like I was invading on what is suppose to be the best time of their life.

On Tuesday, I was in OB Diagnostics. I got to see my first sonogram, amniotic fluid index test, and many nonstress tests. It was pretty boring, but it was fun to see the nonstress test and how the baby reacts to contractions. The nonstress test tests the nervous system of the baby. You can see if there is cord compression (sometimes the baby plays with it and clamps it with their hand), low or high amniotic fluid, uteroplacental insufficiency (placenta detaches from the uterus, or hyperstimulation of the uterus) or head compression.

I took our first test that covered Antepartum and got an A! I really love learning about maternity because many times in class, Ashley and I are like, "Wait wait WHAT HAPPENS??" I mean, I'm not going to say I'm never going to have kids, but we have both agreed that it is not something that we are looking forward to. I mean the crap that you have to endure is crazy...so thank you to mothers out there. I knew it was hard stuff...but not THIS hard. And I don't think I will be working in Maternity anytime soon, I still have the passion for infants. =)

Just a little update on fitness, I have been getting mad at the scale lately. It just seems to not be moving fast enough. But today I weighed in and did measurements and according to healthstatus.com, my body fat is now 24.5% at 142.5 lbs. So I've lost 3.5% body fat since 10/5. I hope to lose another 1% by Thanksgiving. See, I still weigh a lot for my height (I'm suppose to be 130), but I guess I do have a fair amount of muscle. Still keeping my eye on the prize and training for our family 10K on Thanksgiving day! I'm so excited for that!