Day 3: My First Day in the Office

Today was finally my first day in the midwives' office! Everyone I have met so far–staff and patients–has been very nice. My mentor Irma was not in the office today because it was her day off, so I spent the day with another midwife, Kim. Although I hadn't previously talked to her, she knew exactly who I was because she knew my mom and remembered when I was born! She even remembered I was the only girl in the family. Small world!

It was a pretty laid back day of normal appointments. Since Kim was the only midwife there today, there weren't very many patients, but I still got to see quite a bit. The nurse Carrie would ask each patient before Kim came in if it was ok to have a student in the room too, so she would put a little card outside each door that either said "student ok" or "student not ok." Most people were very willing to let me be in the room and were very surprised when they learned I am only in high school.

The first patient to come in was one day over her due date, so it could be any day for her at this point! Kim did a bunch of regular procedures, such as measuring the belly, listening to the baby's heartbeat, feeling the baby and its position, and checking the cervix to make sure it was soft and thin. After that, the patient was taken to the NST room to do a non-stress test, which monitors the baby's movement and heart rate for an extended period of time to make sure that the placenta is giving the baby enough oxygen and nutrients; the heart rate should go up when the baby moves, which is exactly what happened during this non-stress test! When getting very close to birth, I learned they recommend a non-stress test every three days to make sure the baby is normal and healthy.  Here is a panorama of the NST room (the patient gets a nice, comfy recliner to sit in):

The machine to the right of the recliner is what slowly prints out the graph of the baby's movement and heart rate.

The second patient was another regular visit, but she was only 20 weeks along, so she has another 20 weeks to go. Like the first patient, Kim measured the belly and listened to the baby's heartbeat. During this visit I learned that starting next week at St. Vincent's (where the Mercy midwives deliver the babies), Nitrous Oxide will be available during births as a relaxer for the mom. St. Vincent's will be the first hospital in Ohio to begin using Nitrous Oxide, but it has been used for decades in Europe. In fact, in the show "Call the Midwife," which I named my blog after, the midwives in England used Nitrous Oxide–back in the 1950s and 1960s!

The rest of the day I was in and out of appointments. I was curious to see how many appointments would be obstetrics-related and how many would be gynecology-related, and today it seemed that most of the visits were regular OB appointments. Tomorrow is an early day with appointments starting at 7:30!