I’ve been a bad blogger, lately, and haven’t been writing posts nearly as often as I should. Which is not to say that nothing has been happening lately (in fact, I’ve been quite busy, and have been having a hard time finding a moment to write), but none of it has seemed particularly news-worthy. School continues at its steady pace. We’ve gotten through our first round of mid-semester exams, which was stressful and is thankfully over, our check-out exams are done, and clinicals start next week for me. We had a spectucular 4 hour lecture on urinary tract infections in Primary Care last week, which was very cool, but didn’t seem to merit an entire post. Although I will mention this cute little factoid: did you know that a woman’s urethra is approximately 2.5-3.5 cm long, while the male urethra is approximately 16.5-18.5 cm?? I mean, obviously the male urethra is longer, but I had no idea it was that much longer. No wonder women get so many more UTIs than men! It seems a bit unfair.
On the work front, I’ve been doing nothing but postpartum lately, which has been a bit depressing. Not that there’s anything wrong with postpartum—it’s fabulous to see all the women and their babies, and to take care of them during a time when they so desperately need nurturing, and you can make such a difference in a woman’s life by helping her with the breastfeeding—but even so, postpartum is a bit more routine and repetitive than Labor and Delivery, and you end up taking care of 8 patients at a time, which can be stressful and frustrating, since you never feel like you get nearly enough time with any of them! Sadly, as a per diem nurse, I don’t have much say in where I end up working. If L&D is well staffed, but they need nurses on postpartum, I am always the first person to get floated. It’s been weeks now since I saw a birth, and that makes for one very very grouchy student midwife. I’m working tonight, tomorrow night and the next night, though, so hopefully I’ll get to see a birth again fairly soon.
In other news, I’ve found yet another really cool website which is well worth checking-out (there are so many of them out there!): Spinning Babies. I’m going to post it as a link under the Labor and Birth –> Vaginal Birth sections, since the information here is really helpful for women trying to turn their babies, or learn about the optimal positions for birth, and ways to help get their babies into these positions. Gail Tully, the homebirth midwife (CPM) and doula educator who is the driving force behind Spinning Babies, offers workshops on her techniques, and there’s a workshop in Boston next Feb., which I would really like to attend. There are so many conferences and workshops I’d like to attend next year! Guess I’d better get saving…
Anyway, more posts to come, I promise. I’ve been working on a doozy of a post on premature rupture of membranes, and I discovered some amazing birth art just a few blocks from my house, so stay tuned.
