It was a long, very full day of class.  We covered inductions, augmentations, epidurals, bladder catheterization, physical assessment of the woman and the newborn, and pap smears.  Today, I typed up the notes from yesterday's class - 11 typed pages, thankyouverymuch.  I was the only one in the class who hadn't done a bladder cath on a live person ( Read more... )

An email went around at work inviting people to a 'farewell tea' for me and for the past two weeks I've been bombarded with questions about where/why/when I'm going.  This has been challenging for me because in order to keep myself from falling apart, I'm trying to just think one day at a time.  And honestly, explaining assessment programs and ( Read more... )

I'm in the city for another observational placement. Thunderstorms woke me up twice last night and my blessed alarm clock went off at 5 a.m. so that I could be on the road before 6 a.m.  By the time 8:30 rolled around I was on the road with one of the midwives for a very full, non-stop day of home and clinic visits.  My head is spinning and I've ( Read more... )

I was really losing faith in this Pathways process but today I got an email from the coordinator, telling me that I can FINALLY send in my application to UCN and eventually have student status!  With student status, I can do clinical work in my province, and finally get this road on the show ( Read more... )

There were three women in labor today and so one of the woman was given to Dina, who was second on, to take care of. I was up all night, went to bed for four hours and then got up for the first birth, then hung out and ate and watched tv trying to sleep on the couch early this afternoon. I finally realized I was really emotional and over-tired ( Read more... )

Well I had my first night shift and my first shift as "first on". Confused? Me too. I spent the night at the clinic and had a good time visiting with Laverne the midwife and two of the other interns, laughing and eating cake until 1:30 in the morning and then I went to lay down. I had been laying down for only about 20 minutes and the doorbell ( Read more... )

Tonight is my first time at being "first on", which means I'll be spending the next 12 hours at the birth center and if there are any babies to catch tonight, it will be me doing it! Dina was first on last night and her shift ended at 6 this morning and then a laboring mom came in around 6:30 a.m. and had her baby just before 7. I know there will ( Read more... )

In one of my citas yesterday I did a vaginal exam on a mama who was 38 weeks to term. Her baby's head was really low and this woman was SICK of being pregnant and wanted this baby to come NOW! She was very sweet and very funny and didn't laugh too much at my "spanish charades". For those of you who have never done a vaginal exam, to me the ( Read more... )

It is soon time to get head to bed - a nice quiet day for me. I did some housework, went for a walk, and after Dina got off work we walked to Maternidad, the other birth center here in El Paso. It's in a house and is smaller than Casa, but felt really homey and comfortable. They were VERY busy with a "sala" full of women and their families ( Read more... )

Today is my first day off since we got here and even though we've only been here six days, it feels like forever. Once I get over the stress of everything I'll start to enjoy it more but I'm still pretty stressed about some of things I need to do here. Dina is working today, her first day as "second on" by herself and she was a bit stressed at ( Read more... )