COTW SMNET Catch of the week 6/2/12

For anyone who's not sure - these are real situations designed to help you get an idea of what other people would do in this situation, to help you evaluate the care you'd provide, to get other ideas if you are in the situation in the future - and to make you realise just how much there is to learn in midwifery and just when you think you have it sussed something will happen to make you realise that nature has ways of taking us all by surprise, no matter how experienced you are. The women and their families have very kindly agreed for their experiences to be shared online, or the experiences are already detailed and shared with the public, and in accordance with the NMC all are completely anonymous.

Some of these situations will be lovely normal births, others will end up in theatre or have a nice birth with complications afterwards, as in real life not all pregnancies will have a happy ending. There are various settings so don’t forget where you are (can’t transfer to theatre from a homebirth without ringing an ambulance etc). Intermixed with the intrapartum cases there will be antenatal or postnatal scenarios thrown in as midwifery is not all about the birth.

Each event will last for 1 week, with me setting the scenario on the Monday and unfolding a bit more each day until Sunday when I conclude it, ready for the next. However if I am around and basic questions are asked (such as why I did something or what something means) then I’ll answer them earlier.

Join in, make comments - be they practical suggestions of what could have been done, a 'OMG I'd never have done that', a 'why did that happen?', 'similar thing happened to me', or a 'I haven't got a clue - hope mum and baby were ok'. The more people and comments who are part of this the more fun and interactive



You are a community midwife and one of your calls today (after a weeks annual leave) is to Sally, one of ‘your’ women who had an emergency section for undiagnosed breech presentation 6 days ago and had prolene to skin. EBL 450mls

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Full pn check, does the stitch come out today? Check her wound in any case and assess sally psychologically too, ask her how she is doing, how the baby is etc. How is she feeding, is that going well which ties in with
Full pn check on baby too.

Prolene is a suture material that is finished on each end with a small bead to keep it in place. It is not dissolvable, and is usually removed on day 5-7 following the procedure.

Usual PN checks, remove suture, it's NNST day too so perhaps ring beforehand, check she consents to this and advise warm socks for baby.

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Yes- though it's official name is the Neonatal Screening Test- it has also been known in the past as a Guthrie or PKU- heel ***** is used commonly also as it is a more literal way of explaining it to parents.

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