Labor and Delivery Unit Observation Report Essay

A labor and delivery nurse is a nurse who cares for woman and newborns during antepartum, intraparetum, postpartum, and neonatal stages of birth. These nurses take vital signs to make sure the mother and her newborn are healthy. Labor and delivery nurses aren’t there for the medicine they are also there to provide support for the mother and the family. I would like to become a labor and delivery nurse because I love helping and taking care of others, especially when it comes to babies, I have always been interested in how the human reproduction systems works, and I love seeing others happy.

There are more than 70% of premature babies that are born between 34 and 36 weeks gestation a year. When a baby is born early, or born with birth defects, the Neonatal Intensive Care unit is its first home. The nurse’s in the NICU have the difficult job of preparing baby’s and parents for a health life together. A baby who has been put into the NICU will stay there until it is healthy enough to go home.

This week of maternity clinical rotation, I had a patient Mrs. M was 35-year-old G2P2. She gave birth to a boy by cesarean section at 41 weeks. Mrs. M had Rh+ and Blood group was O+. She was rubella immune, +PPD and had no known allergies. Her GBS, HBsAg, and RPR status were negative.

When I arrive to the Trauma ICU 4800 unit, all of the nurses were already being followed by other students. The nurse in charge had me follow several different nurses, so I was able to observed several different patient cases. The first patient had received a triple bypass open-heart surgery. The patient had received a creatinine blood test. The patient had a dialysis machine next to them, which was used to function as the kidneys since the patient’s kidneys were not functioning correctly. Also, the patient’s body temperature was lowered from having a taken cool liquids so the nurses were keeping him warm with a bair hugger, which was a machine that helped regulate the patient's’ body temperatures.

I am interested in pursuing a career in nursing. A career that really interests me is a neonatal intensive care nurse. This is a type of nurse that works in a neonatal intensive care unit. These nurses often work with infants who were born prematurely, born with birth defects, or infants who are having critical complications during the first month after birth. Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit require constant monitoring and are often being treated for life threatening diseases. According to The National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) approximately 40,000 infants are born each year in the United States needing specialized NICU care. NICU nurses are always present when a baby is being delivered so they can provide immediate

Nursing has always been in my life since the day I was born… literally. My Aunt, a labor and delivery nurse, was the one who basically helped my mother deliver me. The fact that my Aunt was lucky enough to be the one that was there for people on those special days fascinated me. As long as could remember I knew I wanted to do that and be the one to help and comfort so many through their highs and lows.

Overall, I do not feel like a great deal of improvements needed to be made in my delivery of care. I felt comfortable communicating with my nurse and the health care team, assessing the patient, and educating family members. My nurse did not feel well, so she started off the day a little on edge and irritated, but through showing that I was willing to assist her in any way possible, she was more than willing to assist in my learning. I could improve my delivery of care by asking my nurse more questions and looking up more information in the patient’s chart. I noticed that the layout of the NICU was quite different than last week, so I did not have a computer to look up patient information, but rather, I looked alongside my nurse.

Immediately after birth, the newborn has an identification band put on. One band is put on the ankle, one on the wrist. The newborn has footprints done immediately. Included on the footprint sheet are the newborn’s name, sex, DOB, time of birth, and mother’s health record.

The author is a nurse in a level two trauma facility in a community of approximately fifty thousand people in Oregon. The community is a college-town surrounded by a large agricultural area. There is a minimal ethnic diversity within the community. The diversity present occurs mainly from internationally students and faculty from the college. There is a growing population of women who desire low interventional births in the community. The author has worked on the labor and delivery unit of the hospital for the last 14 years. The hospital is the only one in the area to offer trial of labor services to women who have previously undergone a cesarean section. The unit on average experiences around 1000 deliveries annually.

As of 2013, around 353,000 babies were born in one day, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Be Fruitful and Multiply). Delivering babies is very difficult and strenuous, luckily labor and delivery nurses are trained to help care for the mother during the process of welcoming her newborn into the world safely. Labor and delivery nurses play a very crucial role in helping the delivery of babies and bringing safety and peace to the mother. I am choosing to pursue a career as a labor and delivery nurse because they get to provide care to babies, they get paid well, and they get to assist in the delivery process.

She is without complaints. She has not noted any increase in preterm labor. No signs/symptoms or change in pelvic pressure. She is compliant with bedrest and has help taking care of her son. She is otherwise aware that she should discontinue Motrin next week and is aware of the signs/symptoms that we are monitoring. The placental cord insertion does appear marginal as noted on prior ultrasound and we are following monthly growth. She is aware that after surveillance of cervical length which will the last one we would anticipate would be next week at 32 weeks and after that we would still recommend monthly evaluation of fetal growth. Preterm labor precautions were reviewed. She is scheduled to return in one

A commonly known procedure when it comes to hospital births are epidurals. An epidural is an injection of a drug between the “epidural space” which causes

This essay aims to reflect upon a particular episode of care during the postnatal period, using a reflective cycle as a guide. The author will firstly discuss reflection and its implications in midwifery practice. Teekman (2000) states reflecting on one’s professional practice as self-empowering as it provides us with a look into personal understanding and control. It is believed that if us as midwives are given the opportunity to reflect upon our professional practice, that this will aid us in enhancing our professional practice and enable us to become better practitioners (Schon, 1983). Reflection is an important process for midwives to be able to, not only deal with particular situations well, but to help us as professionals grow and

Louise was a nulliparous woman in her thirties who had no pregnancy complications and nothing sinister in her medical history, so she was classed as “low risk” and she was 7 days over her estimated due date. Louise came on to the delivery suite and my mentor and I were looking after her throughout her labour, her partner was away at work so Louise only had us for support.

Prenatal care is medical care for pregnant woman and is important for a healthy pregnancy. Its key components include regular checkups and prenatal testing, eating healthfully, exercising, and beginning as soon as one knows she is pregnant.