I survived

One night shift down a life time more to go, the first 8 hours of the shift felt like the longest hours of my life sitting on the antenatal ward with only a few very quiet ladies at 4 in the morning was less than fun, I did a few pulses and listened into babies heart rate and other than that I sat at  a desk drinking a litre of red bull and reading the NICE guidelines it was nice to have another 3rd year student on the ward though who was able to explain how she struggled and gave me a few tips and pointers of how to survive the three year hell that is midwifery training. I was saved at about 5 in the morning by another midwife who offered to baby sit me on the birthing unit for a while. Good job she did because she had a lady came in and things were in action, within seconds of her getting into the room she was undressing herself and shouting that she was going to have a baby. She brought her sister in law with her as her husband was racing down from London and was unlikely to make it. So it was action stations for the midwife who was now running around the room grabbing things and sorting things out so as to prepare a little bit. It was all a bit scary really, a lot going on at the same time and it was a job to figure out what was the most important job and what needed to be done first. After a little while the women SROM and the midwife was swimming. It was not graceful and goggles, apron and gloves were needed there were so many unpleasant things on the floor it was a job to know where to stand and to stay out of the way. The lovely lady was really going for it now and she was pushing hard. However, it took a while for anything to happen and the midwife was getting a bit fidgety so a second midwife was called in to monitor the FHR, everything was fine with the exception to a very minor heart decal in the baby but it soon shot back up again. When the head finally appeared it was the single strangest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was a bit shocked at to how weird it looked to have a head sticking out. The baby was not playing ball though and appeared to be struggling a bit, turns out it was a shoulder distoshia and within seconds of pushing the emergency buzzer hundreds of people came running in the lady was quickly laid on her side with legs pushed back which was enough to open the pelvis a bit more and get the baby out. When it did eventual fully appear it wasn't very healthy looking and needed a bit of waking up and rubbing. That still didn't get it going completely though so the baby needed rescue breaths in order to get it going a bit better, after a few the gurgle noises of a baby there were a few cries and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I had managed to wedge myself in a corner in the hope I got in nobodies way and stood silently, I'm not going to lie, that shit was scary especially for your first birth. Turns out the baby was a whopping 9lb 8oz which is why it took so long to push her out but she was lovely and all in all her mothers labour was lovely and calm and a little bit rushed at the end but never the less brilliant. I was also with an amazing midwife who talked me though it and was just brilliant and amazing, it really was lovely and such a nice way to end a shift.
When the placenta was delivered it was another weird thing to see, the midwife took me to one side to examine the placenta and have a feel, at 6am it was the last thing I wanted to do but I shut up and just did it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We checked to see the 2 arteries and one vein in the cord then checked to see the 2 membranes which are called the corion and amnion then we checked for completeness of the placenta and too see that it was all intact, the last thing we checked was to see whether the cord was positioned in the centre of the placenta and had good vein and artery supply. It was all very interesting actually. When the shift finally ended I felt amazing, shocked and overwhelmed with a sense of achievement. It really made me realise how privileged I am to be a student midwife and really believe that all the hard work so far and beforehand was definitely worth it, bring on the next three years of training and that my friends was my first ever night shift and first ever birth.