Slow Day!

When I arrived at the hospital this morning it was fairly slow. There were three women admitted who were in labor, but the circumstances were pretty varied. One mother was contracting even though she was only twenty-six weeks along, so she was quickly put on nifedipene (to stop her labor) and steroids (so that her baby's lungs would mature more quickly in case labor could not be stopped or still occurred before thirty-six weeks). Once she stopped contacting she was sent home and she will hopefully carry her baby to term. 

Another mother had been contracting, though weakly, for a couple of days. This would not necessarily be a big deal, except her blood pressures were extremely high (180/120), she had protein in her urine, and her deep tendon reflexes were +4. She was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (a very serious condition that can lead to seizures in the mother and thereby death of the baby through poor placental oxygen supply), which is only curable by delivery of the baby. We induced her with syntocin, which she dealt with so beautifully although her contractions were ridiculously strong. She had a very healthy and beautiful baby girl, her third child, who I was fortunate enough to deliver before noontime today. Even though that silly baby had her hand up to her face when she came out, I am happy to say that her mama didn't tear at all! 

The third mother is a very shy, sweet, and young girl who is having her first baby. She is a few days overdue at this point so we began the induction process this morning at 9am. When the other midwifery student and I left the hospital at 3pm she was having some small and rather uncoordinated contractions, but we expect that she will likely have her baby sometime late tonight/early tomorrow morning. We would very much like to be at her birth so we're going to go back to the hospital tonight  and I will hopefully be able to write about her labor and birth tomorrow!

Carrie