Slippery Babies

So much has happened the last two weeks that it's hard to remember everything. Here are a few highlights:

- I have become a placenta delivery expert ;)
- I assisted in delivering 2 babies (with the resident's hand guiding mine)
- I solo delivered 1 baby (and didn't drop it)
- I got asked not to participate in a delivery of a neurosurgeon's wife by the neurosurgeon because his wife was "sensitive"
- I got yelled at by a nurse for trying to talk to a patient in the middle night (not the best idea in retrospect, haha)
- I've become comfortable taking an OB history
- I got to deliver the placenta during a c-section
- I got to close up the skin incision on a c-section -- twice
- I was complimented on my level of knowledge by a resident
- I helped suture a vaginal tear
- I saw a vaginal delivery with forceps
- I saw an episiotomy (the baby had made in through the pelvic canal but couldn't get past the perineum)

More about my solo baby delivery -- I had my hands on the baby's head, going through the maneuvers, but as soon as it was out, I got nervous, so I held it close to me instead of holding it in the proper position. Even though I wasn't 100% successful in catching the baby correctly, it was a good experience.

A few more notes about L&D:
--a lot of poop: I can handle blood fine, but feces/vomiting really grosses me out. Maybe L&D helped desensitize me a little bit to poop...maybe
-- GET AN EPIDURAL! Actually, you can't force patients to do something they don't want to, but after witnessing epidural vs. non epidural births, I 110% recommend getting an epidural. Delivering without an epidural does not make you a better mom, so why suffer? :) Even if the woman can handle labor, repairing vaginal tears with local anesthesia post partum is REALLY difficult because the woman can still feel the pressure of the needle.

L&D was the part of ob/gyn rotation that I was least looking forward to, but I actually ended enjoying it A LOT. Deliveries are exciting, c-sections are fun, and babies are pretty cute :)