I watched a Caesarean yesterday

I got to actually watch a Caesarean yesterday.

I had to sit on a stool next to the mom's shoulders, but other than that was able to see everything that was going on!

The mom had been labouring for 20+ hours and was still only 4cm dilated, the baby's head was not dropping and the baby's heart rate was dipping during contractions. I had popped in after lunch to help out and had spent a few hours with the mom. They had put her on pitocin a few hours earlier to try to speed things along, and she was getting quite uncomfortable... so the call was made to play it safe and rather send her for a Caesarean.

It was kind of like Grey's Anatomy - the intern who was called to assist had never scrubbed in before. So I watched through the window while the surgeon taught her how to scrub in. and O.M.G. they clean up THOUROUGHLY. There is no doubt those hand are clean after that. Yikes. I am actually surprised they still have skin on their arms after a day of multiple surgeries.

I had to wait outside the theatre until the docs were ready, and until the epidural was in (I still don't understand why the mom can't have some support WHILE the epidural is being administered!? It must be scarey and I am sure she could do with some soothing, plus I'd love to see an epidural being done)

The anaesthetist was a tall, HOT, deep-voiced black man. I do believe I may have swooned just a little in his company *blush* And he had the most stunning wedding ring I have ever seen on a man. (It was silver - probably platinum, with tiny diamonds circling it right around the middle) Really pretty and sparkly and looked so good on his manly hand.... but I digress... sighe

ANYHOO...

I was able to sit and see pretty much everything. It was incredible. I have never been sure if I'd really be able to cope with seeing right inside someone like that - I kind of suspected I'd be fine *, but I don't think you ever know until you are there. It didn't bother me at all, and I am just so fascinated by it all.
So I saw them slicing all the layers and the doc was explaining it all to the student:
"What's that layer?"
"That's the visceral sheath"
Cool huh!?

It is still a bit freaky to see them pulling her open - with their bare (well double gloved actually) hands, and then the intern almost climbing on top of the mom to apply enough fundal pressure to pop the baby out. That takes a lot of force and looks really unpleasant!

It was really cool to see the little head sticking out of her tummy before it's body was all born. A big boy weighing 4.06kgs.
Once baby was fine - he had a cord around the neck, which is why his heart rate was dipping during contractions and why he wasn't descending - we showed him to mom and I took some photos for her.

Then the theatre nurse told me to go out with her and baby, and she gave me the baby to look after for the mom. I was quite astounded. I mean I was more than happy to hold the baby and coo to him, but was quite surprised that they were separating mom and baby for their first 30-45 minutes and that baby was not identifiable and no one was really watching me. Seems like a huge risk!

Anyway mom came out and I was there waiting to give her her gorgeous little boy and help her to get him latched - which took longer than when it's done within 15 minutes of birth.

I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing babies being born

The hospital was a lot calmer and more friendly yesterday than last time I went, and a few of the nurses and doctors wee interested in what I was doing and how to go about becoming a doula etc.

Anyway I just wanted to share my latest birth experience.

Note: The pictures are not from this birth, they are just representative...

-----

* When I was at varsity I ended up in a hospital as part of one of my courses and saw 2 just embalmed people (shame it was a 60+ couple), which was slightly shocking and I had to remind myself not to think that they had been alive less than 24 hours before.

Then we saw some cadavers that had been fully dissected for study purposes and which had been there for 10+ years - those had REALLY strong chemical smells which made it a little tough to handle. I had been fairly sure that it was just the smell that was off putting not the sight, but it was hard to tell.