I Clamped an Umbilical Cord!

In the last 48 hours I’ve attended two births and will most likely attend another tonight. (My guess is I’ll get called in at 3:20 in the morning.  Seems like that’s the magic hour for laboring mothers.) Tonight, I was observed by my instructor, while assisting with the birth.  Which means, I wore gloves a lot, and had a stethoscope around my neck all night.  After the birth, I took (and charted) blood pressure,  pulse, respiration, and temperature of both mom and baby – every 15 minutes for mom and every 30 for baby, (after the initial newborn exam by the CNM).

I also used the Doppler while mom was pushing and listened to the fetal heartbeat  – which was in the 140s.  After the birth, (mom pushed an 8+ lbs baby out in five minutes without so much as a laceration – it was her second though) I held the umbilical cord in between my fingers and felt for the pulse – and then, guess what….I clamped it.

Yes, folks, I clamped my first umbilical cord, and it was awesome!  And then I helped collect blood from the umbilical cord – and that was soooooo cool.

I also got to massage the uterus about 6 times (which really should be called assault the uterus) as well as checking fundal height and lochia.  Squeeeeeee.

I’m a birth geek.  It’s official.

In the midst of all that, a friend of the mothers that was there for the birth, who is pregnant, asked if I would be her doula when she gives birth.  I might need to keep doulalicious business cards in my back pocket.