Day 14: Clinic/Swing Shift

Clinic full-out started at 9 am. Our "Super" (supervisor) asked Jordan & I to work together as a team, & take turns off and on, which was fun. When we had any questions, or everything wasn't totally normal, our Super was there to help, which was really nice!! In all, there were over 70 clients there for prenatals, 13 of which Jordan & I did. We got thru with Clinic at 12:45pm.

Makayla with a client

Of the prenatals that we did, here are the most interesting cases/findings:

Most of them were Anemic, many struggled with UTI's, & many couldn't afford or forgot to get their labs done since their last prenatal.

One gal had a recurring UTI, & so we advised her to try water therapy for 1 week, & if that didn't help, we would refer her to the doctor.

Another gal had very high blood pressure (145/100), was very anemic (84-norm is 120+), & edema. Her baby's HT (heart tones) were within normal ranges, but very low. MMC referred her to the doctor for further examination, & with the request that he let us know if she can deliver at MMC or not.

Another client's baby was doing somersaults (literally!!): At the beginning, the baby was in breech position, but by the time I had gotten the Doppler on him, I was getting HT under the mama's right rib. The baby moved around so much though, that I couldn't get him to stay in one place long enough to get an accurate FHT (fetal heart tone), so I waited a minute, re-palpated, & got my final count over the mama's left hip!! It was amazing, because you could seriously see the baby doing flips in there, through her skin....poor girl!!

The saddest case by far though that we have experienced while here, was of a gal who was 29 weeks along. At the client's last Prenatal (a month before), the FHT was normal, & everything seemed good. Since then, she'd still had contractions, but hadn't felt movement. Her FH (fundal height) was 25 (last prenatal was 26), & I was pretty sure she had miscarried.

We tried for 15 minutes to get HT, tried 3 different dopplers, used different techniques, & even had our Super come try, but couldn't find them. Our Super had us bring her to the Birth Room, where another Midwife put her on Oxygen, & tried again, but to no avail. That was really sad....

At 2 pm, our Swing Shift started. Day endorsed an Isla Verde client to us, & as with most Tribes (as I stated a few posts ago), this client couldn't speak Visayan, didn't know her age, or when she might possibly have gotten pregnant, so no one knew when she might give birth.

Thus, besides doing Vitals/discharging a client who had given birth on Day's shift, our shift was dead until:

7:30 pm, our client started going into harder labor, & so I went in & started charting. At 7:57 pm, she brought forth a beautiful little boy with no complications. Unfortunately, the mama was completely infested with worms....poor girl!! She also had an interesting eye problem: one of her eyes looks to be covered with a bloodshot film, with a milky substance around her pupil/iris area....not like cataracts though...

Tomorrow I work Night Shift.