You’ve Just Got To Wait For Labour

Today I was hanging out downstairs in the birthing centre.

Last night there were 2 births; one was a postpartum haemorrhage. I wasn’t present at the birth but there was a lot of blood and an emergency Iv was fitted. Apparently, the blood was very heavy (obviously) and then just completely stopped! Haemorrhages tend to be defined by 500ml and the midwives estimate that this woman lost about 1.5l.

This morning a woman came in at around 6:30am at 6cm dilated but by the time I came downstairs (around 11am) she was refusing an IE (internal examination). However by 12:30pm she gave her permissioin but she was still around 6/7cm. Therefore we took her vitals and we did the 10 minute test – putting hands on her belly and feeling how many contractions she had in 10 minutes. You can estimate the intensity of the contraction by how it feels – if you put your finger on your bottom lip it’s mild, nose is moderate and forehead is high. This woman has fairly intense contractions however she had three within just over 10 minutes.

At around 4pm she had reached 8cm however the baby was still fairly high (the head needs to descend before birth) and the midwives suspected the baby was OP (opposite position, the face is facing the wrong way) which isn’t necessarily an emergency situation, but need to be on alert. They tried to get the baby down by breaking the waters and making the mother push however the head was still quite high so the mother was transferred to hospital.

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