Baby Poppy*

I had a superb shift yesterday, had one great job and the rest were ok. We had a baby!!! D and I received a further emergency at around 10:07 back to Bracknell from Ascot. The job had already been waiting 10 minutes for us to clear from hospital. We had been going a couple of minutes before we got the job details, Maternity call, contractions every minute, waters broken. There were no other details, we would have liked to know weeks pregnant, how many children and whether there was a midwife on the way.

Now I never believe the contractions every minute statement, it usually equates to contractions every now and then and waters probably not broken, me and my cynical thoughts....... D on the other hand was telling me we'd be delivering a baby, and was excited about it.

When we arrived I was looking for the house number, then I heard a scream, looked round and saw a youngish bloke come out of a door and start waving at me. That'll be the house then..... D got the entonox, I got the response bag and we headed in. Our pt was on all fours in the hallway, her waters had broken and after a minute her next contraction happened, very rudely only a minute after the last. The partner said 'she's booked into Frimley', I said 'I'm sorry but we're not going anywhere!! It took a little longer than that but I decided fairly swiftly that we would have to stay and have the baby at home rather than run the risk of trying to make it to hospital. I contacted control and requested a midwife then went to assess things closer.

At this point D was getting everything organised, bags, inco pads, oxygen etc etc. D has done this before, I haven't therefore I was quite happy for her to get on with things! On close inspection, has to be done...., there was definite bulging on every contraction meaning things weren't going to take that long.

I rang control back after 10 minutes to get an update on an ETA for a midwife and was told yes one is on her way. 5 minutes later she arrived, I was very very very (etc) pleased to see her. She got to business and assessed our pt, agreeing that birth was imminent. She commented on the fluid present saying that it was muconium, where the baby passes feces due to distress. I thought it was just blood and amniotic fluid but the midwife is the expert. Another 5 minutes later the door bell rings again, another midwife! Superb!!

After the arrival of the second midwife there was very little for D and me to do. We tried to stay out of the way and got bits and pieces for the midwives, including out HX Entonox cylinder as the pt had used the 1 1/2 CD cylinders we had........ They found the baby's heart beat and then tried to make sure the pt's cervix was dilated fully. This was difficult due to the position the pt was in but the decision was made to get the pt to start pushing. At this point the first midwife decided that the fluid was in fact blood and amniotic fluid so there was no worry there.

After a bit of position adjustment our pt began to push effectively and the baby made her way fairly swiftly into the world, the midwife actually had to hold her back to try and avoid tearing. At 11:09 baby Poppy appeared after around 7 hours of labour. Seeing as this was our pt's first baby I hate to think how quick any more will be!!!

Anyway, Mum and Baby were fine and we left once everyone was settled. A good job all round! I am now much happier about the prospect of delivering a baby, got to watch the professionals!!

Spent the rest of the day smiling!!!