On the Grow in Menomonee Falls!

I'm really excited about tomorrow's class: Under the Sea. It's an "On the Grow" class, part of the new, expanded Baby Signs Curriculum. This class is designed for pre-schoolers, ages 2-5, and includes fun signs, stories, a craft, and some movement. We'd love to see you there!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milwaukee-WI/Baby-Signs-with-1000-Praises-Doulas-for-Birth-and-Beyond/52188484732?v=app_2344061033#/event.php?eid=156784527895&index=1

Happy Halloween, Baby!

I spent Halloween in the hospital- with a momma, beginning at 06:00 for an induction. She was already dilated to four- has been for weeks, so they started straight in with the Pitocin. Momma was 34 weeks, has a history of pre-term labors, and had been ruptured for 7+ days. She's also GBS+, so Pit and antibiotics were hung at the same time. She had an ultrasound at 6. to confirm Vertex- (baby was breech on Wednesday, vertex on Thursday, breech on Friday....) All was go, so at 7am, they started cranking up the Pit. It didn't take much to get her into a pattern of regular contractions, though the monitor was having a tough time picking them up, because her uterus was still fairly small, because she was pre-term. by 10:30, she was contracting every two to three minutes, in a good solid pattern. At 11, Doc arrived, checked, pronounced her "still 4 and less than 25%effaced" and placed an IUPC, which caused significant pain, and bleeding. After about an hour, mom insisted that the cath be removed, because it was not registering the contractions, and it HURT. They pulled the cath, and her contractions picked up. The resident checked and she ws "5 and 90%., and baby was at 0-+1. Nurse insisted that she shift to her side, and contractions stopped. I've never seen anything like it- pit cranked to 26, and NOTHING.Mom sent me downstairs for lunch, and got into bed from the chair. When I got back, mom was on the phone with her kids. They cranked the pit again, broke her forebag and contractions resumed with a vengeance. Mom requested meds, and they gave her one of the -phines- not morphine, but something close, I think Nalorphine.

Mom went straight into transition, within ten minutes of getting the drug. We got on the call button, and soon our nurse, the doc, and the NICU team were scrambling, because she was pushing. Baby came flying out, just before two- a lovely little girl, cried right away, the dock almost fumbled her, she came out so fast!Mom got to hold her for a few minutes before NICU took her away.

She's tiny, but a fighter. She's off of any breathing support, and off of the NG tube, and bottle feeding well. they expect her to be released soon. Mom was devastated at having to leave the hospital without her.

I'll let you know when she comes home.

Tunnel Vision & Selective Listening

Working with this latest client has given me a whole new perspective on tunnel vision as it affects doctors, nurses, and the birth community in general.

My client is a grand mulitp with a history of premature births, and several children at home. She's been hospitalized and put on bedrest, and her bag has a high leak- which would be no big deal, except that she's also a single parent, 32 weeks, and her kids are in the custody of their grandmother who wasn counting on having them for days, not weeks.

Mom had steroid injections about a month ago to promote lung development. She's been suffering through injections to prevent early labor since 17 weeks. She's unhappy, stressed, and uncomfortable. She's also extremely worried about her kids- things are not going well at grandma's house.

Her doctor had the gall to say that none of that was her concern- that her only concern was the well being of the unborn baby. She told my client that if this baby wasn't her only concern too, that she was a bad mother! She wouldn't hear the concerns that mom has that her older kids are possibly being abused at grandma's house, (she's an abuse survivor) that mom is constantly wet and uncomfortable, or any of mom's concerns about her prior history of labors-

This lady is a GOOD mom. She's worried about all of her kids- the ones that are already here and living, as well as this new one on the way. She's trying to balance their needs as well as she can, but everyone around her is telling her that she's a bad mother for not listening to them- her older kids caretakers, the school, the doctors& nurses who have played the "dead baby" card more than once. They've threatened her with cord prolapse, poor lung function, hemorrhage, her death and the baby's death to keep her in the hospital. What happened to treating the WHOLE woman- not just her pregnancy?