The Life of an OB on Call

What a day I had yesterday! I have been following a pregnant patient (who we will refer to as "C" ) her entire pregnancy. She was due May 25th and I have anxiously been waiting for THAT call. Yesterday morning at 6:45 I got it. Labor and Delivery called to say she was 4 cm, 100% effaced, membranes were still intact, and had an epidural. Man did I fly out of bed. I was so excited! I drove the 20 minutes to the hospital to find out that floor is busy! There were 4 babies in the nursery (two being discharged soon) and 2 moms in labor. Dr. V found me, updated me on C, and we went and saw her. I got the summary from C, examined her, and began the waiting game. I spent a lot of my day glued to the monitor at the desk which shows a graph of the fetal heart rate, mom's heart rate, and contractions.

Another patient (who I will call A) got an epidural and went to sleep for awhile. Before the epidural, we checked her and she was about 4-5 cm. She slept for awhile, so again back to the monitors I went. Around 15:00 we went to check A out, and she was complete so we told her it was time to push. I was on "hold a leg and foot, push it back and tell the patient to push duty." I realized how awkward it is to tell a woman who is in a very bad mood and in a lot of pain to "push push push push push. Push like you have to poop. C'mon PUSHHHHHHH." Anyways, at 16:21, baby girl A was born :)

So, we clean up, get ourselves together, go check C who is sllloowwwly progressing, and see that she's about 9.5 cm at around 17:30-18:00. Dr. V told her she would come back in about 20 min to see if she was complete. So we're at the desk, discussing the rest of the day when we hear from one of the nurses "Dr. V would you like to join me for a delivery?" While A was delivering, another patient (B) had come in about 3 cm, wanting an epidural. Well, she went to 10 cm in less than 20 min and it was time to push. Again, I was on hold a leg and yell push duty. Baby boy B was born after about 5 pushes.

We literally changed gloves, and walked over to C who was ready to push. This time I went to "hold a leg and yell push, hold the fetal monitor, and help stretch around the baby's head duty." After about 15-20 min, Dr. V decided to let her rest because the baby was not tolerating pushing. The heart rate was bouncing between too low during contractions or too high between. In addition, we were pretty sure her pelvic bones were too narrow and his head wasn't going to make it. So the OR team was paged, we got everything ready to go and Dr. V and I rolled C down to OR where we got her prepped and ready to go. Once she was set, we scrubbed in and began surgery. Baby Boy C was born at 20:25. I'll admit, I got pretty scared as he didn't cry for about 3-4 minutes. There were a lot of people in the corner working on him, and they finally got him to. Phew. So baby C and dad left, C was knocked out and we finished up surgery. Dr. V allowed me to suture up the fascia, only two days after practicing on a chicken! I was scared, but I did fine.

Alright, surgery is over, we walk C to recovery, Dr. V goes to dictate and I go to find the baby and his family. I found the baby in the nursery with the nurse but no family. Where are they you ask? Oh in the basement. Why? Because there's a tornado warning. Yup Baby C was born in the midst of a tornado warning. No one even told us in the OR! LOL. So I found the family, told them C was great, baby C's weight and length and there were hugs all around. I waited until C came out of recovery to see the two of them together. One of the nurses snapped a picture of C, her husband and baby C with me. They will be emailing it to me later.

So, I got home at 22:50. It was a very long day with little food. My feet hurt like never before; I was exhausted. BUT it was the BEST day of medical school yet! 3 babies! Woohoo.