Oh, what a night....!

Last night's shift was a busy one! On delivery suite, with my student.

We started off with just the one woman to care for - a multip, being induced for post maturity. Her care was straight forward.

Then another woman arrived in the unit, who appeared to be in advanced labour. The sister in charge suggested my student P and I cared for this woman too, because there was a good chance that she would give birth soon. Sure enough, within about an hour she gave birth to a lovely baby boy.

In the meantime, the first woman we were caring for was getting on well. I suggested to P that she go and stay with this woman, whilst I started the paperwork for the first birth. The room was just across from the midwives station, so P knew I wasn't far away. Not long after, the woman began to feel some rectal pressure. P and I observed, to see if there were signs that the baby was on it's way. But nothing seemed to be happening. P got her delivery pack ready, gloves on and I returned to the paperwork.

Probably about 10 mins later the buzzer went. I entered the room to hear P saying, very calmly "pant"! I quickly donned gloves and with a second stage of about 4 minutes, the baby was born! I was so proud of P (and the woman, of course!) The baby weighed a little over 10 lbs and the woman needed no sutures! P really has learnt so much during the few weeks that she been on placement.

We both went off duty feeling tired, but very satisfied.