Midwife Mondays 69: First Placement Week of 2018

Within days of our complexities exam, we were back out there, in practice, like nothing had happened – except obviously we are still waiting for our results.

I was placed back in the Maternity Assessment unit, where I had been before my Gynae placement, except this time I had finished my complexities module.

There is no better way to reassure yourself that you’ve actually learnt something than going back into placement and immediately being faced with a woman whose condition you wouldn’t have understood much at all before the module, but after the module, you not only understood but were actively able to help.

I had this with one of the first ladies who came in during my first shift back – she had a very high blood pressure, had protein in her urine, had a headache and had some generalised swelling – all key symptoms of Pre-Eclampsia.

Turns out that this particular shift was completely full of women with symptoms of hypertension and pre-eclampsia so it was the perfect opportunity to consolidate what I have learned, and also offer advice and help where I could. We ended up admitting a couple of these ladies to the antenatal ward, and some of the others saw the doctors and were given the all clear to head home again.

Throughout the rest of the week I saw a real variety of women; one lady who had crashed her car that morning and wanted to check everything was ok with the baby (it was), another who was 39 weeks pregnant and whose baby was lying transverse so needed to admitting in case her waters broke to avoid cord prolapse.

Another lady came in who was 27 weeks pregnant with twins but thought maybe they weren’t moving as much as normal, so I was given the task of finding both the fetal hearts with a sonicaid. I half expected to try but then struggle to find the difference between the two rates and having to get another midwife to help, but in the end I found both heart rates, which were so wonderfully different it was so clear that I had found both babies’ heart rates – it actually feels like I’m improving on even my simple skills when things like this happen – which is very exciting!

It’s been a good first week back, and I feel like my brain is really getting back into it all now. Now I’ve got two more weeks to really consolidate my assessment skills and make the most out of this placement, before I go back into uni for another couple of weeks (and, of course, get my exam results!)

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