Ride

I get a call from a patient in the middle of the night because she thinks she might be in labor. I ask her some questions and it certainly sounds like she is in labor. It's her first baby. I tell her to go to the hospital when she is ready, to get checked out. I'm thinking she will be something like 4 or 5 cms and I'll get to not go in since she was planning an epidural. Then she starts mentioning that she and her husband's truck is not running.

Ummm....ok.

Shall I come pick you up?

C'mon, what do you want me to do about it? Call EMS if you have to I guess :( I figure you knew you were pregnant for nine months....you knew labor would happen at some point, right? So, plan a little bit.

Two and a half hours later, she arrives at triage (she found a ride, no EMS). She has advanced dilatation and the baby is breech. Lovely. Guess who got to get up and go first assist?

On the lighter and less crabby side...I had two very nice natural births. One never seemed that uncomfy until right at the very end - wow! The other had a rude awakening. Her first baby came very quickly - because she arrived at the hospital 8cms! They broke her water and she delivered 30 minutes later. This time she was 5cms and with a thick cervix. I warned her that it might not go very quick as she wasn't that active. She wanted me to break her water which I did. After several hours of minimal progress, we started pitocin. It didn't take much - we never got past 5mu/min and I actually had the nurse turning it down once she was active. My plan had been to turn it off so we could hopefully let her finish on her own. But she delivered before that - the pit was on 2mu.

1st baby - 4 hour labor
2nd baby - 10-12 hour labor

Go figure. Mother Nature is a tricky lady!