Babies!!!!!

I got to deliver three babies in the past three days! Amazing! There was always another pair or hands right behind me, but for the most part I got to do everything. And it was really slimy. I've realized I think I'd rather be the doctor in the room who comes in and cares for the baby than the doctor or midwife who has to sew up everything and wait to deliver the placenta. I've also realized that I think my dreams of an all natural childbirth were not completely realistic...if I'm going to be pushing anything through my vagina that could tear it apart, I think I'll have an epidural, thank you. Trust me, those women still feel it.

The birth's themselves are so incredible. One minute there's no baby, and then, ta da! there it is!!! The mothers and families are so happy and relieved...it really is a fun thing to be a part of. It's amazing that these women let a med student be there at all. Not that there's that much I could mess up and there's someone always close at hand. But still. It makes you feel privileged. Of course, the doctors really aren't in the room for most of it. The nurses are great and close at hand...but the doctors and even midwives stay away until the very last minutes when the woman is about to burst.

C-sections are crazy too. The woman is totally awake, she just can't feel anything as we reach in and dig out the baby. What a lot of blood! Way way more than anything I saw in peds surg. And the surgeries themselves are quick and dirty...or not dirty really...they just lack a little finesse. No more 3mm tails on suture like in surgery...here it was all a cm or more and the incisions on the uterus can get a little wacky. But they get the job done. Plus I got to sew more in one day of OB than I did in four weeks of surgery. Go figure. Still the most incredible thing to me is how fast the uterus contracts after surgery. I guess you can feel it after a vaginal birth...but when you see the thing involute right in front of your eyes it's quite something.

There's also been some sad things in OB...still born babies, scary pre-eclampsia, lots of premature preterm rupture of membranes. Sigh. I just have to remind myself that we see all the crazy cases and that 90-95% of pregnancies have no problems and are solely handled by the midwives. Due to our population base we've also seen a lot of young mother's...I'd say at least half if not more are younger than I am, and many are repeat pregnancies all ready. Scary. I'll wait 4+ years for that, there's just no way right now. But hopefully I've reached a turning point in my work hours. All my dreams were shattered and this past week was just as bad as peds surg...still had to be there 5am-6pm and in general we were even more busy during the day. Sadly I'm all done with OB for now (except for my two overnight calls coming up soon) and it's on to GYN. Not terribly excited, but I bet I'll see some neat surgeries. And hopefully I'll get some much needed sleep!