It’s been 2 weeks into my placement, and I must say that I’m kinda enjoying it. There seems to be much more to do and learn compared to Psych & GP. Granted, plenty of time is being wasted as we hang around waiting for births, but that time can be put into reading/studying, and at the end it’s all worth it. I think welcoming a new life into this world is a pretty amazing thing to do =) Not to mention that the parents have been so kind to let me be part of the process, and they are really appreciative even though I only do the smallest of things for them. Makes me feel good =)

It’s been 2 weeks into my placement, and I must say that I’ve had quite a fair bit of drama going on. Last week on my first day in labour ward, I spent 12 hours with this lady throughout her whole labour process, only to have it become a Caesarean section because she wasn’t progressing despite maximal syntocinon (that’s the drug they give to help the uterus contract). We found out why in theatre – turns out she has a unicornuate uterus, with 1 ovary and 1 kidney missing. WHOA.

The one on the left is how a normal uterus looks like and the one on the right is how a unicornuate uterus looks like (picture credits to Netter’s Anatomy):

She knows she only has 1 kidney, apparently it was picked up incidentally during an ultrasound, but I was seriously wondering why her pregnancy ultrasounds did not pick up the missing ovary. So anyhow, it was quite amazing that she still managed to get pregnant and bring the pregnancy to term :P And at the end, mum was fine, baby was fine, so it was all good :) Registrar says that this is so rare that probably no one else in my batch will ever see one, so there, it was worth it.

And then on Tuesday I was in the clinic when I saw a lady with pre-eclampsia. She was in for her routine 36-week check, and she had a BP of around 175/100mmHg, with oedema all the way up her thighs. We did a urine dipstick and it came back 4+, so we had to admit her immediately. The poor lady, she was tearing and all because it was all so sudden and she wasn’t prepared. Before we examined her she was still saying something about feeling quite tired and irritable these days and she just wants the baby out instead of having to still hang in there for another 4 weeks. Well, a classic case of ‘be careful of what you wish for’. I was actually quite nervous and worried for her, I thought I was going to start tearing too. Oops, no good, can’t be too emotional, can I? Eventually it was decided that they were going to have to do a Caesarian, so I left for home, but I saw her the next morning and both mum and baby were fine, phew :)

And then yesterday I got in a bit earlier before my tute and found a lady in labour, and since there weren’t any other students around I decided to roster myself onto labour ward. Spent some time with her throughout the day, and she was doing really well with the contractions and dealing with the pain. But 5 minutes after the registrar reviewed her in the afternoon, the foetal heart rate started dropping to about 50bpm (it should be 120-160), so the midwife got me to call the registrar back in. He had to put in a foetal scalp electrode to get a more accurate reading, and it stayed the same at 50ish. So the consultant was called in, and everyone was sort of panicking a bit, putting her into the left lateral position, giving her oxygen, turning off the syntocinon, turning up the IV fluids. And me? Boy I sure felt a bit lost and helpless :( I wished I could have done more to help really, but seeing that I couldn’t really help with the medical bit, I just held the patient’s hand and tried to comfort her. Thankfully the heart rate went back up to about 110ish, but we still wheeled her down to theatre for an emergency Caesarian, just in case.

In the meantime, there was another lady who got admitted amidst all that drama, so instead of staying in theatre (I’ve seen 3 C-sections and scrubbed in for 2 already!), I went up to take a look. Finally I got lucky, the lady was pushing and the head was about to come out. I tried to offer the midwife my help but she seemed like she didn’t need any (the registrar said they probably not really allowed to let us deliver, or perhaps cos this midwife is rather new, shrugs), so I mainly just observed and assisted in minor stuff. Well, at least I’ve got one! That’s a start, seeing how unlucky I’ve been. Sighs :( And I must say that normal vaginal deliveries are shitty affairs, quite literally.

And today I was scheduled to be on labour ward and my other colleague said he was going to come to. Initially there were meant to be 2 inductions, but 1 got postponed, so I figured I’ll be nice since I got 1 yesterday and I’ll just let him do this one. When I got there, it turned out that there was another lady who just came in cos her membranes ruptured, so we could have 1 each. He being the lucky one (last Fri morning alone he managed to get 1 normal delivery and 1 forceps birth) picked the right one, who despite all the screaming (I tell you, she was really screaming her head off, somehow the epidural didn’t really work), managed to deliver at 2ish. My lady on the other hand, had no contractions at all after ~8h since her membranes ruptured, and the baby’s head wasn’t even engaged. So they decided to do a Caesarian since she already had 1 before. Left the hospital at 3, which is the earliest I’ve left in the past 2 weeks.

Big Sigh.

Now the question is, should I go in tmr? I’ve got tutes at MMC from 1-4pm, and there are 2 inductions going on tmr morning. Given my luck, they probably wouldn’t deliver in the morning to enable me to go for my tutes. So should I skip my tutes and wait for births? On one hand, it’s only week 2. But on the other hand, I think the midwifery students are back next week so they will be fighting with us. How now brown cow?!