Midwife Mondays 12: My Second Baby “Catch”!

I am sitting here writing this (on Sunday Night) with a cup of tea in hand, grey’s anatomy on in the background, duvet over my lap and my pjs on….I’m honestly the most exhausted I think I’ve been in years, if not ever! I am so ready for a Christmas break – though I’ll put it out there right now, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be completely useless for the two weeks I get off, so apologies in advance family, I’m one sleepy student midwife!
I’m also really finding it rough that my gorgeous little flat doesn’t have a bath – my whole body is hurting and I could really do with a lie down in a hot bath with some kind of exotic bath bomb fizzing and candles flickering away – that would be so so good right now!

I’ve been back out on the community this week, and it has been so so good to be back in the thick of it! It’s been busy, but so so good!

So here is what I’ve been up to this week (as always, the order of events has been changed for confidentiality reasons)

• Clinic and Home Visits
  The “Bread and Butter” as it were, of Community Midwifery – antenatal appointments, and postnatal home visits. Seeing women at all stage of their pregnancy, offering advice and generally monitoring their pregnancy, and then visiting after the baby’s arrival for support and to check all is ok. I’m definitely getting much more confident with these appointments now – knowing what to say and what advice to give, as well as the more clinical skills – blood pressure, palpation and measuring the bump to make sure baby is growing properly.
• Hospital Tours
  All the lades planning on delivering at the midwife led unit get toured around a few weeks before their due date, and this week, I got to do the touring! This meant walking heavily pregnant women and their partners/mothers/birth-partners around the unit and show them around. I have to say, this midwife unit is so so beautiful – and touring these women around made me so proud to be working there – it’s GORGEOUS!!!
• I Caught Another Baby!
  I had another night shift in the hospital this week and spent the evening with a really lovely couple. When we came on shift she was at 4cm, then by 4 hours later she had progressed to 8cm and was feeling the urge to push. As she’d had babies before, we trusted her instincts (not that she would have been able to stop pushing if we had told her to at that point!) and within 3 pushes she delivered a gorgeous baby girl – with the majority of her waters too (all over my right thigh!) I passed the baby up onto her chest and we cleaned her up (she needed a few sutures but nothing too severe) and within an hour of delivery, she was all comfy with clean sheets and breast-feeding her beautiful baby girl! So that’s one boy and one girl on my personal “catches” – its been a crazy few weeks!
• NICU
  I also spent an hour or so on the neonatal intensive care unit this week, as we had a baby that needed cannulating and setting up with some IV antibiotics. It was so interesting being there and seeing the incredible work they do with these babies, some of whom are really really poorly. After the baby was cannulated (which took a while – she was so new it was tricky to find the vein) she was set up with some antibiotics and I took her back to her mum. I found the whole experience on NICU really interesting and inspiring – I don’t know if we get a placement on NICU during the 3 years training but if we do, I can already tell it is somewhere I would learn A LOT! I do imagine it must be quite emotionally difficult at times, but it must so great when a baby is finally well enough to go home!
• My First Ultrasound
  As students, we have to follow a number of women through their pregnancy as part of our own personal student caseloads, and this week, one of my ladies had her first scan, and I was able to go along with her. This was so so special for me as, firstly, it was my first ultrasound appointment, and second, because it was with a lady who I will be following throughout her pregnancy – I will most probably be there when the baby in those scan pictures comes into the world – it’s just so special and exciting, and such a privilege! I still can’t quite process that these women have agreed to be on my caseload and let me follow their care and be there throughout their pregnancy – its so personal, and they have agreed to let me tag along!

So, it has been another busy week! As you are reading this, I will be sitting in my little blue car on the way to another week of community placement – my last before Christmas! I cannot believe how much I am getting out of this placement and this job so early on in my training – I can tell already, it really is the best job in the world!

**Those of you reading this who are RCM registered students, don’t forget to vote in the RCM Student Midwife Forum Elections before the 19th December. The manifestos can be found here and you can vote here.
(Yes, I am one of the nominees, but this is not me asking for your vote. I am simply putting the links here so you can read the manifestos and vote for whoever you think you’d like to speak for you on the Student Midwife Forum – just please use your vote!)**

Image by Irina Murza

Read last week’s Midwife Mondays post here