Midwife Mondays 35: Taking Blood For The First Time, Lots of Twins & All The Hand Expression

Hello all!

It feels like it was only about a day ago that I was writing last week’s post – the weeks are absolutely flying by at the moment as we hurtle towards exam time and then end of first year (HOW is that something that is approaching already?!?!)

My whole body is in serious need of a bit of TLC at the moment – I’m just so blooming’ achey!
The postnatal ward has to be the place that I have spent the most time on my feet – Luckily my incredible sexy (not!) unloops (a shoe made by clarks that seems to have become a bit of a staple in hospitals because they are like walking on a cloud) have managed to stay comfortable throughout my average of 15-16,000 steps a day as I walk back and forth from storage cupboards or to answer call bells – but by the end of a shift, my back and legs feel like I’ve been on some kind of marathon expedition! Definitely in need of a hot bath, or even some form of full body massage!

This week I ticked a box I’ve been wanting to tick for a while. We have done blood-taking in the skills labs, on the plastic arms, which is all very well and good, but it’s not the same as taking blood from a real person. This week was the first time the opportunity had come up to actually try taking blood from a real person, and I was so much more nervous than I thought I’d be!
I needn’t have been however, I got the vein first time! yay! Very pleased with myself – now the next time will hopefully be less scary! 🙂

This week I also saw my first set of newborn twins. In fact, I saw three sets of newborn twins! Having seen none in my first week on the postnatal ward, this week was apparently the week for people to have little pairs of babies! Super cute ones too!

I also spent a long time this week helping women hand express. I’ve been taught the theory behind hand expression, and I’d seen bits of it in practice, but I’d never really seen it properly until this placement. Women really are amazing. Their bodies producing the very thing their babies need to grow and thrive – I will never get tired of seeing that first hand.

I’m sure there was something else I was going to put in my post this week, but I didn’t keep a note for this post on my phone like I normally do and it has totally slipped my mind…ah well, if I remember, I’ll put it in next week’s post! 🙂

I’m off to get some middle-of-the-day sleep before my first postnatal ward night shift. This week is going to be a seriously busy one, so I’m getting the sleep in where I can! 🙂

Image by Kevin Bhagat

To read last week’s ‘Midwife Mondays’ post, click here