I have been on delivery suite for 5 weeks, been messed about regarding mentors due to having no back up. My first 2 weeks went well, got 5 witnesses and 2 hands on. The following 3 weeks saw another 2 hands on, then I experienced a Shoulder Dystocia, which was very scary. Then today, my mentor was going to give me 2 deliveries, except the first one we discovered was breech at 9cm so she ended up in theatre after an ECV attempt had failed. The next, looking really positive, I delivered baby (with midwifes hands on top of mine) but as I was attempting to deliver placenta I felt the cord 'creak' and I let go, telling the midwife I was not going to carry on, she had a go and stated that the cord was going to go. She tried her best to deliver it but the cord did snap, and the docs diagnosed retained placenta (I thought the cord snapping was my fault up till that point.)
So I have come away with 5 witnesses and 5 hands on. I was told today however from a student at a different uni, that they count hands on as deliveries. Is that what everyone else does? I have had 2 hands on including delivered the placenta's on my own, could I have classed these as my own deliveries? I don't think so.
I come away from my last shift there very disheartened. I think it was unfair to send some of us to a high risk unit in first year when we are supposed to be concentrating on the norm, especially when there is an MLU on the same site.

So sorry to hear about your experiences, it is really hard sometimes to get 'normal' deliveries isn't it? But we can only deal with each case we are assigned too, and the seemingly straightforward ones don't always end up that way.

I am sorry I can't answer your question, I have wondered about this too, as we don't have a seperate section in our CAP document for hands on deliveries, so I am confused as to where we are meant to record them. I will be interested to hear the responses to this too.

__________________
Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker

I only did one hands on before I was left to do them on my own, but I did count that one. You still did the delivery yourself, your mentor was mearly making sure you were doing it well.
For us, the criteria for counting a delivery is that you have delivered the baby and the placenta.
KS x

__________________
Kentish Spitfire
Moderator, Student Services
------------------------------------------------
"It's better to be thought a fool - rather than proved a fool!"

The students where I work have been told to count the hands-on deliveries in their numbers, but just write an "A" next to them, for "Assisted". HTH

Freefall - sorry to hear you are feeling disheartened. It's a shame to come away from the placement feeling so. I am sure, when you look at your placement as a whole, you have learnt L O A D S!


It would be lovely if your midwifery experience could be gained in a linear fashion, starting with everything normal, then gradually introducting the complications. But that's not the reality, is it? Yesterday's shift, where I was working on the ward with my student, was a good example: When working on the ward we're concentrating on Postnatal Care at present. The ward wasn't very busy and over half the women there were post section. Of those that were normal, they all had complications! - Essential hypertension; abnormal antibodies; baby on NNU; diabetes etc...! So, we had no choice but to care for women with complications and made the most of it.

I see midwifery training as a jigsaw puzzle. During your 3 years you are gradually adding little pieces to the jigsaw. Everything you learn is important, but it can be hard to see where it fits in at first. It's not 'til you get near the end of the training that you begin to see the whole picture.

__________________

Thanks Shoshana,

I did wonder if these deliveries counted or not, I will double check with my mentor tomorrow to see if it is the same in my trust.

That is a great way to describe the learning experiences, as being like jigsaw pieces, they don't seem to fit sometimes, and you are left looking in the box for the right piece so to speak. But then I have found that when you least expect it, that missing piece comes up out of the blue, and you can make sense of another part of the 'picture'.

You have a wonderful way of explaining things so that they make so much sense, and I for one really appreciate that.

__________________
Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker

Thanks Missy. Happy to help.

__________________

Thanks Shoshana!

We have five witnesses and then start catching, the first two I guess were midwives hands over mine, but were counted as deliveries as the placenta was delivered too. I did wonder why you hadn't changed your status doodad.

Perhaps it is the same for you? as we have no area for different types of catch. Just deliveries so inclued my witnesses and wrote 'witnessed' and the details, then 'delivered' and the details after that.

Sorry about you mentoring and high-risk experiences FF. If it is any comfort it is the same for me too. I do think our training features little normality (considering this is what we should be the expert in and spend the foundation year doing) by being placed in high-risk units.

But I have come to accept this as there is no choice. To try to think of the positives I think we learn an awful lot helping to look after 'high-risk' women, we never know what the day/shift will bring and there can be many different scenarios in one day that there is lots to go home and read about! There are also many differnt aspects to know and understand by being in these units and it must be difficult getting the balance right with our training (as this is where we'll work once qualified!) so I guess the way we learn is seeing so much abnormal we learn to recognise normal! (IYSWIM?) and they do happen, but I completely agree it isn't easy.My deliveries are coming very slowly, but then I have the worst luck ever!

Re mentors, I have had a tough time with having one that was far from ideal, and then lots of different ones, that doesn't really help you to gain experience and confidence and to begin to take a bigger involvement in care. Those students who have had excellent continuity of mentor seem to doing so well, and are so more confident and competent than me it is quite disheartening at times tbh.

God, that was long. Sorry, essay avoidance again. Wonder what the wordcount is???!

__________________

Yes, I have had to get five witnesses first, and then can be hands on, I only got my last witness on Saturday and didn't have any deliveries yesterday, so that's why I haven't changed my status.

I wondered how the other students in my cohort managed to say they had so many deliveries when they needed to have hands on first duh lol.

__________________
Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker

Some midwives only asked for three witnesses other more, most of us had five. I meant FF's status MM, not yours hun, sorry. I know you are heading for your first catch!!!

Where are the midwives? it would be intersting to have you view from the mentor's perspective?

__________________

Oooops sorry.

__________________
Midwifemissy x

Student Midwife 2007
Student uni rep
Educational Resources Manager

PAB Support Worker