Babies babies everywhere NSVD and a nuchal chord

I had my first night of call on the OB/GYN service the other day. I actually had a blast. I covered the MBU  (Mother Baby Unit) and Triage as well as L&D (labor and delivery). I had a Medical student, junior resident and a senior resident to help cover everything except the MBU, that was all mine. If I do my job well as the on call intern then the junior OB resident and especially the senior OB should not have to do much and they can have a more relaxing night. The more I can do and cover and the better I do it the less they have to do.

It was a crazy night to say the least. I am only 1 week into this rotation so I am still learning all the little details of how the OB service works. For example; how do they like their notes written, how to use their computer system, what medications do they like to use etc. These are all little details that you have to learn at the beginning of each rotation and this makes you less efficient at the start of the rotation. I felt like I pretty much had all the details, tasks, protocols down going into the call which was nice.

I told the other residents that I was ready to rock & roll, and they were relieved. Some residents like to try and avoid the work which makes the other residents work harder. They were great with me taking over and using them for help as needed. They were there for me and I learned so much during that 30 hour shift. I delivered 4 babies over night. All 4 were NSVD = normal spontaneous vaginal delivery. It was great. One delivery was fairly difficult with and required maneuvers and techniques that were great to get to perform and get that much closer to mastering these techniques. I had one baby with a nuchal chord which is when the umbilical cord is wrapped around the neck. You have to move quick and be looking for this complication so you can quickly reduce it. I found it right away and immediately reduced the cord which decreased the risk of hypoxia for the infant. I was thrilled when this baby had APGAR scores of 10 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes!

I also delivered a baby of a lesbian couple which was an interesting / fun social situation. They were great and both actively involved. I delivered the baby and almost asked the more masculine girl "Hey dad do you want to cut the umbilical chord?" However, I caught myself before saying anything and simply just asked her if she wanted to cut the chord and her response was great; "HELL yeah doc!"