I'm a student midwife - AMA

[greenluna]

I'm also a single mum and ex drug addict. Ask away!

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

What are you taught about post-operative care for women who have had a Caesarean section? All too often on here, we hear stories of women who have had a c-section being told they aren’t ill, they’ve just given birth, so there is no help available, and they just have to try to look after themselves and their babies unaided - but surely a c-section is major abdominal surgery, and the women who have one need the proper nursing care that would be given to any post operative patient who has had abdominal surgery?

I used to be a nurse, and in my day everyone did the basic nurse training, so we all worked on surgical wards, and learned how to give post op care - knowledge that clearly transfers over to the post natal ward. Once we got our registration, we could then specialise - I was a Theatre nurse, and did a one year post basic qualification. Midwifery was an 18 month post basic course. If I have understood things correctly, it is now possible to go straight into midwifery, with no basic nursing background.

We are taught about pain relief, techniques to minimise pain, how to help women pick up their babies after a section, breastfeeding positions that don't apply pressure to the wound and more.

The care post c-section varies from trust to trust. My trust, for example, offer paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine to go home with whereas some won't provide anything stronger than paracetamol and ibuprofen.

On the ward, we offer as much help as possible to the c section ladies to make sure they're comfortable and can go to the toilet, pick up their baby etc. From my experience, c section ladies are treated as having just had major abdominal surgery and taken very seriously. It's really unfortunate that sometimes women can be left for longer periods of time due to wards being so busy, but in my experience this doesn't happen a lot. Some of the stories on here are terrible, I haven't personally seen anything like that myself.

Yes that's right! The training to be a midwife has become a lot more thorough, the 18 month post nursing conversion course to midwifery is now being phased out. Only a few unis still offer it.

@Patapouf

We can adjust the lights, play music, run them a bath, talk to them, scream with them, hold their hand, rub their back etc. etc.

Absolutely none of that helps and it's common delaying tactics to avoid giving women decent painkillers.

My questions:
If a woman asks for an epidural what is your response?

Do you think coercive language is appropriate if a woman isn't following your advice?

I'm sorry, what are you basing that on? An overwhelming amount of women find this helpful and put it in their birth plans. They report following birth that the above techniques were valuable to their labour. They aren't delaying techniques at all, women are given pain relief if they want it and are medically able to have it. The only time it would be delayed is when waiting for an anaesthetist to give an epidural.

If a woman asks for an epidural, I will ask if she would like any other pain relief in the mean time (if able) and then call the anaesthetist and ask them to come down to x room and carry out the procedure.

No, coercive language is never appropriate. What would make you think I would believe it was?

Both my babies were delivered by trainee midwives, both births were horrific but both trainees were fabulous! Good luck with the rest of your baby catching.

@FairyDusting

What kind of care goes into a ‘high risk pregnancy’ birth compared to a normal or is it the same? I have loads of medical conditions and i’m currently working on getting myself fit enough to have a baby but no idea if I’d get anymore support or not! grin]

You would definitely get more support!

Low risk women are just under the care of a midwife, high risk women are under the care of a consultant and a midwife, so you would have more appointments. High risk women almost always have more scans and there are so many different places you can be referred to. You should be well looked after and closely monitored.

Best of luck!

@Isadora2007

What’s your view on homebirths?

I think all women should be given the choice to have a home birth (which they usually are and should be). Home births are beautiful and usually a lovely way to give birth, they are my favourite type of birth to attend. For low risk women, home births pose no extra risk to the life of the mother or baby.

High risk home births can be more complicated and 'scary', however if a woman chooses to have a home birth then it is our job to respect that.

@Marauder94

Has a labouring person ever annoyed you? For example refusing monitoring/assistance when their baby is clearly in distress?

Or a labouring partner ever annoyed you with their attitude etc? Xx

No, never. I have heard of stories of women who have refused further medical intervention despite grave risk to the baby but I have never seen this myself. I genuinely have never found myself annoyed by a woman in Labour.

Sometimes partners can be a little irritating if they aren't very supportive/present for their partner as they Labour/give birth, but they are usually quite good.

@LikeTheOceansWeRise

Ohh great thread OP!

Similar to the question above, what do you do if you have an 'off' day? Does the adreneline just carry you through?

And do you remember some babies/parents more than others? I think about the midwife that delivered my baby all the time. She was incredible and I often wonder if she remembers us, but she obviously delivers so many babies every week and we may just be a distant memory to her!

Hats off to you. It's an amazing job to do and seems so fulfilling.

It really is so fulfilling.

Yes, adrenaline does completely carry you through when working in the hospital. On community, it can be hard when having an off day as whilst you're still very busy, it's not as intense as the wards.

Yes I do remember some parents/babies more than others. I really don't know why and it's not usually for any particular reason, but there are some that I just remember better than others. Many women/babies I'm sure I have forgotten. It's impossible to remember everyone due to the amount of women and babies you see every day.

@EatingAllThePies

Both my babies were delivered by trainee midwives, both births were horrific but both trainees were fabulous! Good luck with the rest of your baby catching.

I'm sorry you had difficult births but glad you were well supported! Thank you!

This is a really interesting thread OP - thank you for answering so comprehensively. Please don't let the frankly quite aggressive questions from a small number of posters deter you from answering 🙂 x

Why are some babies blue when they are born? I didn’t realise till months after the birth when my husband mentioned it, but my son was blue when he was born, and he is autistic. Is there a link?

I went in to labour unplanned but had a c section booked as baby was breach. I had severe SPD and arrived on crutches. When from no signs of labour, just a small bleed, to 8cms in 45mins.

I was put under incredible pressure to delivery vaginally, even though baby was still breach and my hip was dislocated by that point.

You mentioned experience sign off - is a breach delivery one of those that you need to get experience signed off for? At the time I felt under so much pressure and being asked to justify my decision to wait for theatre when my contractions were so frequent (less than 2 mins) and I had no pain relief. I still feel upset by it all.

@Tisketatasket

Why are some babies blue when they are born? I didn’t realise till months after the birth when my husband mentioned it, but my son was blue when he was born, and he is autistic. Is there a link?

There's a whole host of reasons why babies can be born blue, but the most common cause is low haemoglobin.

I'm not sure if there's a link between babies who are born blue and autism but I doubt there is.

@whatnow41

I went in to labour unplanned but had a c section booked as baby was breach. I had severe SPD and arrived on crutches. When from no signs of labour, just a small bleed, to 8cms in 45mins.

I was put under incredible pressure to delivery vaginally, even though baby was still breach and my hip was dislocated by that point.

You mentioned experience sign off - is a breach delivery one of those that you need to get experience signed off for? At the time I felt under so much pressure and being asked to justify my decision to wait for theatre when my contractions were so frequent (less than 2 mins) and I had no pain relief. I still feel upset by it all.

I'm really sorry you had such a bad experience, not at any point should you had felt pressured. Have you had support following the birth of a briefing to help you understand what happened and why it happened? It sounds really awful for you.

Yes, we need experience with breech deliveries in order to qualify but as they are rare, it's not always to have real-life experience delivering breach babies so will have to use a simulation instead. Once qualified, you wouldn't be delivering a breech baby with no experience.

What tosh you spout re ‘c section ladies taken v seriously’ 🤬 my daughter was in LWH for 48 hrs - sweeps and pessaries - no dilation - she was basically ignored until a m’wife felt her abdomen and realised she had no amniotic fluid. Crash team and emergency c section ensued - baby in SCU as he wasn’t aspirated xferred to Alder Hey - she was forced to return to Liverpool Women’s at 1.00 am - 24 hrs after his birth - to sign discharge papers. So please do not assume you are in any way suitably qualified to dispense ‘pearls of wisdom’. You are merely regurgitating nonsense.

‘ As I explained before, these women are completely taken seriously and are given whatever they need to make them as comfortable as we possibly can, whether that be pain relief, aromatherapy or a whole other host of things. ’

I was screaming, it was absolutely uncomfortable. My baby was back to back and I was 7cm when I arrived in pain.
I begged for pain relief and wasn’t given anything at all. I kept being told no.
Why are women constantly let down in this way?

Congratulations for turning your life around and what a wonderful and rewarding career you have chosen. My midwives played such a fundamental part in my healthy and happy births!! It must be such a privilege to be actively involved in bringing new life into the world safely. Meeting my daughters for the first time wins the best 2 moments of my life hands down, and I can remember the midwifes involved so clearly!

If a woman had come in with rfm 8 times from 25-38w, but baby and mum found to be in perfect health every time, what would you think?

Tough career choice. But well done you sound very passionate about it.
My question:
What do you think about maternal request c sections?

Women can often lose themselves and need grounding.

This attitude is what caused me to have birth trauma.

@eveoha

What tosh you spout re ‘c section ladies taken v seriously’ 🤬 my daughter was in LWH for 48 hrs - sweeps and pessaries - no dilation - she was basically ignored until a m’wife felt her abdomen and realised she had no amniotic fluid. Crash team and emergency c section ensued - baby in SCU as he wasn’t aspirated xferred to Alder Hey - she was forced to return to Liverpool Women’s at 1.00 am - 24 hrs after his birth - to sign discharge papers. So please do not assume you are in any way suitably qualified to dispense ‘pearls of wisdom’. You are merely regurgitating nonsense.

I'm sorry your daughter had this awful experience.

Though the OP did commence, 'The care post c-section varies from trust to trust'.

I don't think the quite personal derogatory tone towards the OP here is fair.

What an angry thread, lots of unresolved things here.

OP well done for turning your life around! Is it annoying when you see people who say 'you delivered my baby' when you're out and about?

Can some of you just take into consideration that this is a student midwife and isn't personally responsible for any of your experiences?

One question I would have OP is about birth as an 'achievement'. As you've probably seen on here, woman tend to wish this, or experience this wish from others as a 'normal vaginal delivery' with little to no pain relief.

Do midwives recognise that not all women want this, and support the woman's wishes instead? For example, as someone above said, how are maternal requests of C sections viewed?

Great thread!

What’s the oldest and youngest mothers you’ve seen give birth?

@eveoha sorry your dd had a bad experience but your post was unnecessarily aggressive towards the OP. There's no need for it.