Who starts nursing/midwifery in September?

[Smurfgirl]

I am in the very final stages of my application. Just filled out my CRB form thingy, have my MMR tomorrow for the health and must sort out my accommodation! Phew! Going to uni is such a big hassle!

How is everyone else doing? I m getting excited and a bit nervous.

kings college in london. i want to go sept 2006. to be honest i really need more info whats that midwife forum called?

I don't pay council tax vicky, so had to get the letter. I also sent my CTC form showing my claim as a single person - just hope it's all okay. Thanks for asking

Loulabelle. You need www.studentmidwives.co.uk. At King's you can fast-track to the degree after the first year if you get good enough results. And you get to keep your diploma bursary too!

Vicki, I'm posting my reply to your 11 catches on this thread to allow the one I started to slowly float downwards - this one is more nurses and midwives focused and more of us can join in! {grin]

Good luck with the remaining 29 to go. BTW, What was your very first catch like?

Snafu, are you thinking of having one or two settling in sessions for ds with your childminder? Interested to know as the ones we'd interviewed had suggested me coming over with baby and
spending a half hour or so with them to settle baby in. I think it was more for my benefit since I was looking quite stressed at the interviews.

What about you ScrewballMuppet? Did your two childminders recommend the settling in period of one or two half hour sessions?

Interested to know as will be useful info when we use childminder next year.

Yes, I'm going to settle him in over a period of a few weeks before the ourse starts, and also meet up with her informally - at the park etc - so that ds gets used to the whole idea. Luckily she lives really close by and is v. flexible so I'm hoping it will all work out.

Having a bit of a wobble about it all today though - will post a bit more later when ds isn't screaming for attention!

my first birth was great it was to a multip (three older children) and she gave birth in the ibc at our hospital with no pain relief. the baby was delivered quite quickly and was born with its membranes intact! so was a very strange experience, but at least it is memorable.

the very first birth that i witnessed as a student was a home birth that was textbook! My mentor was able to describe exactly what was happening and i played a part in supporting the partner i.e massaging the mothers back when her dp was tired! running the bath, but when it came to delivery my mentor talked me through crowning, restitution, internal rotation of the shoulders and it was amazing to see. the woman was giving birth standing up clutching her bannisters.
i sometimes can't beleive that in such a relativley short period of time i have gone from thinking 'oh my god' how am i ever going to be able to remeber all these terma ans processes to feeling natural whne i say them. i promise it does come quite quickly, but is something that i have to keep reminding myself of in antenatal clinic etc that not everyone else knows what we are talking about.

I had goosebumps just reading about your first homebirth and first catch. Excited just reading about the sort of things I'll eventually be learning!

The internal rotation of the shoulders sounds quite alarming. But I'll soon learn.

Keep us updated on the number of catches you'll have under your belt.

lots of the girls on my course only got their forms a couple of weeks before they started and they still got there bursaries on time so hopefully you will be ok (although they were only getting the basic bursary and no dependants allowance)

sweet fudge- all of your first stick with you, good and bad! i can remeber seeing my first twins, first section, first ventouse,and the worse things like first 3rd degree tear, first pph! you learn something new on each shift and from each birth, and each mentor/midwife that you work with and you can also learn new things from the doctors/obs/anethetists.
one of our obs consultant has a reputation for being nasty to students, but one day in theatre with a lady who had had a massive pph, the cons gave me and the other student that was there a little teaching session on procedures to stop the bleeding and then gave us her direct line if we had nay more questions!!! we were stunned!

Lordy, Vicki - So did anyone actually take the cons up on her offer and call her on her direct line with questions?

Also, any of you read the "tampon got lost up there" thread? Still laugh when I think about the green stamp and glitter stories. I sympathise, I do. I am so big now that I can hardly reach down there never mind wondering if there are things lost in that nether region which will resurface once bub is born and I can actually see beyond this huge bump.

SF

i've never seen anything apart from a baby come out of there! so i'm sure that most pepole will be ok. LOL!

No i certainly didn't call her on her direct line, i think she may have just been having a good day and if we had actually called her wouldn't have been so nice

Vicki, I've just been told by my community midwife that I tested +ve for Group B strep and will be having an antibiotics IV drip in labour.

Feeling crap and rather down about it since I wasn't expecting to test positive! I know it is a common enough occurence in pregnancy but need advice on what to do once I am in labour.

Looked up some websites which seem to advise that it is a good idea to ring the ward once labour begins so they can prepare the IV drip and also, that I should make my way in once labour is established. If so, what counts as established labour? (In previous ante natal visits, the community midwives have said that they like us to ring /go in only when we can't bear our labour pains any longer).

Any of you ladies who've had experience of GBS in pregnancy, all input and reassurances welcomed!

hi sweetfudge. right here goes, i've been reading and researching the guidelines from botht the nhs trust that i work for and the groupb strep support group (www.gbss.org.uk) and royal college of obs and gynae.

and according to these you will need to go into hospital to start the antibiotics as soon as your labour begins, to commence the anitbiotics which will then be given periodically throughout labour. to avoid having your waters broken as this can prolong the exposure to the baby, but not to worry if they break spontaneously as this can be a sign that delivery is imminent so the exposure to the baby, wouldn't be as long as if your waters were broken manually.
if i was you i would ring you labour ward and voice any concerns they are normally very good at answering questions on guidelines and protocols and after all we are there to advise and reassure the women and to provide you with enough information that you know what is going on and what needs to be done.
i'm sure that it ahs been a shock to you to discover this, but perhaps you can seek some reassurance in the fact they found out before you went into labour and so the chances of your aby catching group b strep are slim.

i would recommend looking at the group b strep website as good clear information aimed at mothers and families so giving you straightforward facts and information. whereas the obs and gynae webiste and nhs trust are more to do with administartion of the antibiotics rather than the care of you and your family.

i'm sure everything eill be fine and have my fingers crossed for you. hope you are well.

re; established labour = regular painful contractions. usually after 3 cm dilated, but unless you've had an internal you're not going to know this so i would say established based on your contractions.
i would also consider the length of your journey to hospital, if you're a long way away you may want to go in earlier rather than later.

Vicki, I want to give you a hug. Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, I am feeling shocked but also felt that I shouldn't be upset since it quite common..so your understanding means a lot.

I will look at the GBS website now and I will also phone labour ward to find out what, as you say, their protocol is.

You'll make one heck of a midwife, IMO.

Just called labour ward and spoke to one of the midwives, Vicki. She said to come in when my contractions are five minutes apart and that the IV antibiotics works immediately. Surely this contradicts what the GBS website says i.e. that it takes between 2-3 hours for the antibiotics to cross placenta?

When contractions are five minutes apart, does that mean that delivery is still more than 4 hours away? Are am I being pig ignorant here?

i can't remeber sweetfudge is this your first baby? if it is i would probably say that yes it is likely that delivery will be more than four hours from the onset of regular contractions, if it is your second/third/fourth etc then i would go to hospital as soon as they start, as it is likely that labour will be quicker and i would just want to errr on the side of caution.
i would also take into account eh timings of previous births (if you have had any) and if that was a quick one then this one is more likely to be as well, the same in reverse, although usually quicker than first labours.
hope that make sense.

p.s sweetfudge thanks for the compliment! sometimes its being told things like that that makes all the difference, especially when you are bogged down with essays etc and wondering what on earth i'm doing.

(don't mean to put you off, it is hard work, but more than worth it when on placement, and i suppose the sensible side of me say that if i didn't do the theory work, i wouldn't know what the hell i was doing on the practical side)

just replied on your group b thread.

your first baby how exciting is that and then starting midwifery next year, life is full of changes and surprises for you at the moment.

try not to worry too much about labour and the antibiotics. i know that this sound silly, but when labour starts you will know about it and there will be no doubts in your mind as to wheter its the real thing or not.

keep us posted.

Thanks so much again, Vicki. I meant what I said -the ladies that'll be in your sole care once you qualify in a year's time are going to be fortunate to have you. Hurrah for fab midwives. More please!

sweetfudge - how are you? hope all is well.

i wouldn't look at the gbs website if you are in labour it will scare you to death! you'll be fine hun and so will your baby.I had two babies while testing positive for gbs and they have both been fine. ( i know not all babies are but the vast majority are)good luck!

i wouldn't look at the gbs website if you are in labour it will scare you to death! you'll be fine hun and so will your baby.I had two babies while testing positive for gbs and they have both been fine. ( i know not all babies are but the vast majority are)good luck!

Hi Vicki, how are you? Have you had a shift today or was it lectures and course work?

I feel calmer about it today and tell myself that water for pain relief/waterbirth may not have happened for other reasons anyway. I also think I'm going to stop reading the gbs threads and other info on it since it is not doing anything to reassure me!

Alexsmum, I'm glad that you said that about the GBS website. One of the things it recommended was to make sure that everyone wash their hands and dry hands completely each time before touching baby and continue to do so for 3 months. I know we have to be more careful in case of late onset GBS but really, this will only make us paranoid.

Hmm. going to watch Big Brother now (Vicki, you may curl your lips in contempt at this point but it is my one indulgence....) and will take my frustration out on the more amoebic housemates.

sweetfudge - i logged off for the very same reason to watch big brother, i am addicted this year. should be completing my practice profile to take into my mentor, but i have till friday! (last minute.com thats me!)
we are on study leave at the moment, to get our practice profile finished and an essay to be completed about vbac, and also so that if we have any time to make up for placement.
although my study leave hasn't been the quiet peaceflu time that i had hoped for as still have my two ds as my nan died last week and my mum who usually has them can't because my grandad is staying with them and preparing for the funeral today.
this sounds awful, but she can have them back tomorrow so that i can get on with my uni work. as all needs to be completed for 12th to be handed in and then annual leave for three weeks! YAYYYYY!!

i also think that a godd idea, you found out the info you needed to know about gbs and now there is no need to worry yourself looking at the extreme things that 'could'go wrong, after all it is rare that a baby becomes infected.
enjoy the rest of the three weeks until your due date, and i hope little one isn't too long after his/her due date. (not like my d\rling ds1 who was 3 weeks late, because i refused induction)