A Little Bit of Everything

Another full day. I started it off by prepping and cooking a mess o’ “island cabbage” we bought at the market last evening before work.

If we had made it in to the hospital by 7AM, then by 9:30 am, when I got there, we would have been a part of 4 births. As it was, I caught one baby today. This one was kind of neat for the fact that the MW who came in and out deferred to my judgment about managing it. It was a bit unnerving, especially when she came over to the newly born, vigorous, crying babe about to suction his mouth, nose, and upper airway and I said “No,” and she said “Oh? No? Ok….”

We also got invited to attend a cesarean section of twins. They do in fact deliver twins vaginally here, as long as they are positioned reasonably. In this set, one was "transverse," which would have presented a problem, potentially. The doctor was still game but since the mother wasn't adamant about having a non-surgical delivery, he went with the section. One of the doctors graciously allowed me to take photos and I got about 30 of them (no, I'm not posting them). I’ve stood in on a couple of c/s but never twins before. I knew the section was scheduled for 2pm and women were just lining up in the ward in various states of labor so N and I were keeping on our toes about timing so as not to miss the big twin event. We thought it was pretty safe to go attend the multip (someone having something other than first baby is known as a multip) at around noon. Baby eventually made his appearance a bit after 1pm, then I had to suture a small laceration (which the floating midwife offered to finish for me when she caught on that I didn't want to miss the C/S). I managed to finish the repair, wash the instruments, yank off my gloves, scrub my hands and get out of the delivery room to see what was going on. I was just in time, as they were wheeling twins-mama down the hall to the OR building (across the breezeway). The midwife wheeling her called me over "Come, come Tina!" I hollered at N to hand off the baby she was cleaning up/dressing, and off we went. We stood around the OR for quite a while while everything got prepped. No one asked who we were, which was kind of odd. Maybe they had been warned already? I'll post a picture of the twins.

Afterward, N and I absconded with a scrubs dress each – WAY cooler to wear in this weather than the full scrubs pants and top getups we’ve been sporting. Oh dang, we meant to get photos of us in our operating room gear but forgot. Eh, it was the end of the day, what can I say?

I got home just in time before a huge downpour commenced.