Tonight I got to help closer than ever before with a vaginal delivery. I got to do the "put your hands on my hands" thing through most of the delivery, to get a feel for where to put pressure and how to guide the baby out while keeping the mom's anatomy intact.
Later, at around 3am, I got to scrub into my first c-section. I held some retractors and used the world's dullest scissors to cut suture thread like a champion kindergartener. I did think it was kind of funny that a c-section is the only kind of surgery, other than a conjoined twin separation, where you have a second team of doctors just waiting in the corner to take care of what you cut out. One of the poor pediatricians, who is only scrubbed because it's an OR, not because those precautions are needed around the newborn, got yelled at by the scrub tech even more than I did.
Still not really getting the appeal of delivering babies, so I'm pretty sure that OB/GYN is not going to be for me. There are other reasons too, but if the thing that is universally everyone's favorite part of this rotation is about as exciting for me as going to the grocery store, then I'll probably pass on this specialty as a career.
Blood draw update: Still more failure, but I finally had a great nurse teach me some tips, so I'm excited for the next try. I also may smuggle some needles home to practice on myself (my squeamish SO, whom I love dearly, is not helping me in this matter).
TIL: Postpartum uterine atonia is when, after delivery of the baby, the uterus fails to contract. This contraction is important for expelling any remaining products of the pregnancy, for helping the uterus return to a more normal size and, most importantly, for cutting off the blood flow that had until recently been going to the placenta so that the new mom doesn't bleed out. Risk factors for uterine atonia are, generally, anything that causes the uterus to be stretched, including a large for gestational age baby, too much amniotic fluid, and numerous prior pregnancies.
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