Grey Water

It's a sad day when you can't even bribe your own sisters to do the dishes for you...

Human

I stumbled across a verse from Psalm 71 once last night and then to really wave it in my face, once this morning....

Verse 14
"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more."

This art came about as a result. To truely praise him 'more and more', there are sins I must lay down. Simple yet so difficult .... and it's utterly humbling when dealing with BIG heavy stuff to be reminded that despite it's weight that there is still hope.

Martha and Bill have escaped the couch

Okay, okay....so I haven't been the most loyal of bloggers of late....and yes the excuse is "clinicals" and "exams". This coming Friday will be the last of my four weeks at the Mercy Hospital for Women, and while I love clinicals I'll be ever so glad to see the end of this lot! Tired, tired, tired and wondering how people actually work full time and actually have a life. I think being with women in pain is what takes it out of me....not that women's labour pain makes me afraid or uncomfortable, but rather it takes so much energy to help them keep on keeping.

The tally of all the births I've attended up to the moment stands at

Normal Vaginal Births: 11
Forceps: 3
Ventouse: 4
Cesarean: 3

Out of my forty required "primary accouchers" I have one which is an okay number at the moment. I assisted at one birth which I thought I could count as another primary but turns out that I should err on the side of caution and not list it....the ventouse only helped guide the head and then the doctor and midwives insisted I have my hands ready for the rest of the baby and I also managed third stage ..... but because of the ventouse I really can't count it.

I've seen so many amazing things and feel very honoured, at the same time I'm also very frustrated too - I've seen way too many women induced when their body wasn't ready for labour, which in turn leads to intervention in the form of CTG monitors, IV cannulas being inserted, epidurals given because induction/augmentation brought contractions on too quickly for women to work up to them, epidurals mean catheters, epidurals mean mum's stuck in bed and not able to change position well or use gravity because her legs are heavy, which can lead to slowing the decent of the baby, and ineffective pushing.....which can lead to either forceps or ventouse.....or a distressed baby, which leads to a cesarean section - there you go that's what's called the "intervention cascade".

Say goodbye to Martha and Bill everyone!

.....there does that satisfy you, Bec, Han and Geoff? : )