Friday, May 11, 2007

Politics

Yes, it is hard to believe that there are politics, even in birth. Mostly it is the interpersonal stuff between the nurses and the practitioners (physicians and midwives). Sometimes it is between the family and the practitioner or the different members of the family and the patient. It is all about manipulation and spin on the situation or the information. I get really sick of it. I just want to catch babies and have nice births - not get into a pissing contest with someone over doing a job, entering a room, viewing the birth or not, holding the baby or any of a number of other inane trivialities. We need to talk nice to one another, go the next step, treat others as we want to be treated and above all remember that no one is more important than anyone else. Everyone has a purpose in life, even if it is hard to see what that might be in the moment.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Thoughts and meanderings

I love my job. I love what I do. I have decided I don't like being tired. I have done a delivery in the night every night for the last week. I have worked in the office Monday thru Thursday seeing patients and Friday doing administrivia. I am on call 24/7 as my midwife partner is out of town. I'm tired and I'm tired of calls in the middle of the night. Hum, it is hard to do midwifery care without being available. I'm also tired of not being able to get out of dodge at the drop of a hat. When I'm on call, I need to be able to get to the hospital within 15 minutes. Rarely do I get to do a delivery as soon as I get there - mostly I need to be there to labor sit. My patients are reassured having me there with them insuring that they get to do the things that they want. I'm good with this until I get really tired and then sometimes I get cranky. Mostly, I keep the cranky to myself. Occasionally it creeps out as jaded sarcasm to the answering service or the nurses with whom I work. Alas, I will probably be tired for a while. I'm on call next weekend too.

Friday, May 4, 2007

More birthing

I've had a couple of really nice births - fast, pleasant, and easy and a couple of strange things - an undiagnosed breech picked up by ultrasound for amniotic fluid volume and a cord around the neck 3 times. Go figure. Part of the excitement of this job is that it is never boring.

Punished for being good.

My partner and I are considered easy to work with. We do a nice calm birth. We labor sit with our patients, and help out the nurses as we can. Because of this we are often working with new/less experienced nurses. I love teaching. I love birthing. However, It seems unreasonable that we (the midwives) should continuously be labor training nurses. That means we have to be extra alert to see that everything we need in case of an emergency is in the room for the birth. That means we have to be planning ahead for extra help if the new nurse doesn't know what is expected. That means we check all the standard equipment and set ups to be sure that they are correct. That means we are doing our own job and our own charting plus the new nurses thinking. It is being punished for being good at what we do. This is a very frustrating experience.