The past week has been a hard week. It seems as though when things happen in the OB community they tend to happen in three's. It makes me grimace at the heartache that some of my patient's have experienced this week. Everything seemed to start unraveling at the seams on Thursday night a week ago..actually 3 am Friday morning. I was awakened to a telephone ring from a nurse in the ER. She said a patient of mine was requesting to see me. I figured the news wouldn't be good as the patient was in her 1st trimester of pregnancy. When I entered the ER suite I found my patient sobbing. Before I could embrace her with a hug she handed me a speciman cup. I knew what was in the cup before I made myself look. In the cup was a perfectly formed 8-9 wk fetus. I have never seen something so incredibly intricate and amazingily designed...pure perfection. In school we are trained to catch babies and provide women's healthcare. Why no lecture on how to help a woman cope with a loss of a baby? What about the sad part of nurse midwifery? I know it makes us all (as nurse midwives) sad and uncomfortable to discuss this type of loss but I think it would definately help us in the long run...if nothing else benefit our patients.
Unfortunately, things kept unraveling after Friday. Monday, I found out that one of my home birthing clients lost her full term baby. She delivered in Columbia and there was no clear explanation as to why. On Tuesday, I found out one of my patients was in an accident and too lost her baby. My midwifery partner, Leigh, and our midwifery student, Amy, attended this birth. This wasn't a fun week of midwifery--this was a sad and challenging week. I struggle with what to say....The love that midwives share for their patients (and their unborn babies) can not possibly be put into words on a page.
1 comment:
I cannot fathom the grief that those women experienced. The loss of a child is a pain that I hope I never know. *hugs*
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