ER Experience

What I enjoyed about the ER:
1. Fast pace
2. New patients very often
3. Always learning
4. Building confidence
5. Working with experience, nurses with 10, 20, even 30 years experience.
6. Doctors willing to teach
7. Able to do every thing
8. Unexpected future
9. Opportunities for nursing growth
10. Feeling of helping someone else

Before I was a Mom

Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom -I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom -I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.Original Message Becky Kountz

Cup Feeding

How to cup feed a breast baby, first help infant to latch on for about 10-15 minutes. If infant latches on allow infant to breast feed, if not pump, or hand express breast milk in to a small cup. When there is sufficient breast milk available hold infant close to Mom’s bare chest to naked infant, stoke infants lips or cheek when infant opens mouth wide pour a very small amount in to the side of the infants mouth, allow infant to suck and swallow milk. Repeat Stroke lips or cheek when the infant opens mouth wide pour a small amount into the side of infants mouth allow infant to suck and swallow milk, repeat until infant no longer opens mouth wide or milk is gone. Remember to start every feeding with the breast first so that the infant realizes that is where dinner comes from eventually the infant will latch on. If the infant is very close to latching on including opening mouth wide you might pour a small amount of breast milk on the nipple and then place breast in infant’s mouth.

Problems latching on

I was able to help a mom attempt to breast feed night before last; she was downing pretty good she was starting to gain some confidence. The baby was latching on well, although mom had to keep waking the baby up. So they breastfeed five times in a twelve hour shift, I left thinking that she would do ok breast feeding that it would just get better. So last night when I got to work I received report that mom wanted to bottle feed now. I was completely confused because this mom said to me on more than one occasion that she wanted to breastfeed. I went into the patients room mom was holding her infant I asked “How she was doing?” Mom burst in to tears and said that the Nurse and Doctor said that she could not breast feed because the baby was crying and that meant she was hungry. I asked how often she was feeding the infant; Mom said that the day nurse told her to feed the infant every 3-4 hours and that she need to wait to feed her because she would spoil the baby. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!! First of all you cannot spoil a new born they only cry when they need something, hungry, Diaper change, too tired, too much stimulation, or needing to burp.
I was so ANGERY with those nit wits, Breast babies should always be fed on demand. They will cluster feed during the day they should nurse, 15 minutes on the right, 15 minutes on the left, back and forth until the infant falls asleep or is satisfied. In the beginning there is colostrum which is very nutrient rich starter milk. Breast milk is a supply and demand system the more often the baby breast feeds the more breast milk is produced. I explained this to mom and attempted to undo what the day shift had done by bottle feeding the baby. So getting the infant to latch on to the breast was difficult so we would try for five minutes at the begging of every feeding and if the baby would not latch on we would cup feed. So at the end of my twelve hour shift the baby had cup fed four times and breast fed with a good latch twice.
Update: Mom was able to breast feed the infant after about three weeks of working with the infant, cup feeding, when the baby would not latch on.

Coping with loss

Everyone takes loss in a different way, as a nurse, I thought that a mother who lost an infant should cry. As I previously stated I cared for a mother who lost a child because she was so premature. She looked at the baby for a few seconds and that was it she said she was done. There would be no funeral for her baby; the hospital could dispose of the body. We prepared a memory box for her of pictures, blanket, gown, vital statistics, lock of hair, and wrapped it up so that nothing would be lost or get ruined. She opened it and looked at it, at discharge she left it in the room. I was completely taken by that behavior, I felt like she was relieved that the baby died. Maybe she was able to lean on her religion; maybe her faith gave her the strength to go on knowing that she would see this child again.
I was sad that there was no one to morn for this infant. No one to cry because so many dreams could not be fulfilled, no first steps, no first tooth, there will not be a first day of school, no graduation day, she will not get married for have children of her own. I could not understand why this mother was not morning her daughter, or the things that she would be missing out on. This mother would not know the joys of motherhood of this child, nor of the pleasure of her grandchildren.

OB Nursing a Calling

Prior to 2006 when my Daughter was born I worked in the ER for four years, I learned a great deal. The emergency room offered a number of learning experiences. After my daughter was born I discovered that I was burned out, empathy for my patients was at an all time low. Patients abused the system, refusing to utilize the proper resources; non compliance of patients was my ultimate frustration. After returning to work, crying for 30 minutes on my way to work, for three days, I realized as I sat in my car wiping my eyes that it was no longer worth the emotional toll, I gave my noticed that morning. I found a “job” much closer to home, in Labor and Delivery at a very small hospital here in Georgia. I call it a “job” Because I get paid for it, but I feel that it is a calling for me because I would continue to work there if I won the lottery and did not have to work. I enjoy helping parents welcome a new life into this world; it is wonderful seeing Heavenly Fathers children enter the world. I pray that I continue to feel this thought out my career, as an OB nurse.