Not that OB rotations are supposed to be exciting, but today was particularly boring. I had a 20-something mother who gave birth vaginally without complication at 2 o'clock this morning. Baby is breastfeeding great. He latched good, stayed on forever, and kept falling asleep (so did mom). She wanted no pain medicine after the birth. She was very independent and acted surprised that we thought she needed anything. When I got there at 7:30 am, she asked me when she gets to go home.
The nurse handed me some pills to give her - a stool softener (protocol for all postpartum women at this particular hospital) and a Motrin. The patient looked at me funny about the Motrin because she wasn't asking for it, and looked at me funny about the stool softener because, well—wouldn't you? I told her she didn't have to take either of them, but she did anyway. When I had to chart how she rated her pain, I didn't know what to write! The nurse told me to just write abdominal aches.
I asked if I could assess her baby, and she's like "What?" Assess your baby. "You want to do what to my baby?" Check it. "For what?" I don't know! Hydrocephalus. Congenital heart defects. Stuff your baby obviously doesn't have. Why am I even here?
As for going home, I told her that since she's in the hospital, they'll probably want to do tests 24 hours after the birth: PKU, hearing test, bilirubin, etc; but honestly I can't see any reason to keep her. Not that it was up to me.
Also: a couple of nurses freaked out because a woman was walking down the hall holding her baby. "Doesn't she know she's not allowed to do that?" "Well," the other nurse says, "we're not like other hospitals that have nice clear signs in the room saying they're not supposed to walk with their babies." I don't get it. You can't be an independent adult in a mother/baby unit. If you drop your baby, obviously you can sue the hospital for letting you even hold your baby!
All in all, it was an exercise in futility. The only thing I saw today was that obstetricians and hospitals have to keep perfectly healthy women locked up after their births in order to avoid lawsuits.
The no walking with the baby thing is baffling to me. I was shocked when I got yelled at by several nurses at the nurse's station for walking around a bit carrying my baby.
ReplyDeleteI had my baby at a birthing center. The pediatrician we were going to use told me to call her after the birth to set up an appointment. I did, but because it was a weekend and she wasn't available, she told me to take my baby to a hospital for a colleague to evaluate my baby (she wanted the baby seen in 24 hours). When I got to the hospital, they admitted my baby in NICU and kept telling me that I didn't have prenatal care and that "I should have had my baby in the hospital." They said my daughter "may have an infection" and that they wanted to keep her "just in case." When I said no, they threatened to call CPS on me. I was scared, so I just went along with what they wanted to do. My baby was in there for 3 days. All the tests were negative but they gave her antibiotics "just in case," kept criticizing going to a birthing center. She was fine, no fever, eating great (breastfeeding) and pooping/peeing normally. They wanted to keep her longer, but when I told them I was afraid I wouldn't be able to afford it, they let her go. I defintely feel like the hospital punished me for where I gave birth.
ReplyDelete