Growing up, I always strived to help anyone in need, and saw the onscreen media images and programs about life as a nurse and in the medical field, and dreamt that one day I could be just like them. I grew up reading books about childhood characters going to the doctor as well as children's informational books, both picture as well as full text, about the medical field as well as medical information. I have always known that in my future career, I want to be a part of an occupation that is challenging, interesting, and makes a difference in people's lives every day. Throughout childhood and into high school, I believed that I was going to become a pediatric nurse practitioner. However, that concept was later changed.
For the course of my junior year of high school, I leaped at the opportunity to be a part of the Howell High School Health Occupation program. Throughout the first semester, we spent time in the classroom learning patient care skills as well as vital information that we would later apply during the second semester. Later in the year, during the second semester, we had the chance to be a part of seven hands-on, real-life, clinical experiences, and in the third week of rotations, I set up a night shift elective clinical at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, on the labor and delivery unit. That night alongside myself were many college nursing students taking part in their rotations as well. However, being still in high school, having little medical experience, and never seeing any type of birth before, I was quite anxious about watching the deliveries and being a part of the process leading up to deliveries firsthand.
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The rooms in the unit were spacious and filled with earthy neutral colors, feelings of anticipation, and longing to meet a soon-to-be-born. At the beginning of the night, the nurse I was with and I spend most of the time monitoring the mothers and babies, administered medicine, and I was able to see IVs get started. Though it was the middle of the night, I quickly realized that the unit never slows down. However, all the nurses were calm and supportive of every patient they saw. A few hours into our shift, one of our patients was ready for an epidural to get placed. The thought of a 16-gage hollow needle and epidural catheter going approximately 5 to 7 centimeters into the epidural space of the spine gave me the chills and the thought that I would be freaking out if I was the patient. However, the anesthetist was able to calmly talk to the patient and have her relaxed to then insert the needle.
Not long after the epidural kicked in the mother was ready to deliver her baby. The delivery lasted longer than the mother was prepared for and expected. She had come to the point of exhaustion after an hour of pushing where she was completely certain that she could no longer continue. In between a push, the nurse looked at her and said: “Rest for a moment. Look at me”, “You are strong and going to do this. You can do this”. That moment was the biggest turning point for me. Her words were submerged and embedded into the patient's mind, and she found the strength to keep going. It was then when the women were at their lowest place, both physically and mentally, when then that the nurse freed the patients. Not long after the sound of a new baby cry and a whiff of the distinctive smell of blood, as well as the scent of amniotic fluid, which was new to me, filled the room.
After the birth was complete and the mother received adequate time for skin-to-skin, we were able to begin baby care. I had never taken care of a baby or even held one for more than a few minutes, therefore, I did not have a clear set of expectations aside from concepts that I had previously read and learned about. To my surprise, I felt particularly connected to the newborns. It felt natural to hold them and to take care of them as I provided baby care, which included taking vital signs, diapering, and properly identifying them. The lingering indescribable newborn scent of vernix caseosa, the substance that covers babies when they're born, remained after we had swaddled the baby. I stared at the tiny wrapped-up baby for a moment and the realization hit me that a new life had entered the world, and I helped be a part of that process.
Hours later, I heard that there was a scheduled cesarean section and was given the chance to see the operation. I was truly amazed at how calmly and confidently the doctors and nurses in the operating room handled themselves. The room was so organized and sterile that it was hard to imagine it being anyway else. Yet again they successfully delivered another healthy baby. It was remarkable to me that at 9 p.m. I was checking the mother's vitals, at 10 p.m. I was watching the physicians sew back together the mother's uterus, which was exposed on top of her abdomen, and by midnight I could only see a thin incision mark on her abdomen.
Throughout the night during the other births, I was a part of I came to the conclusion that I would never guess the nurses and doctors do this all the time because the level of excitement they have about every new baby is always the same. Having a career in obstetrics was never completely considered when looking ahead at my future, however, this clinical rotation changed my mind and plans. This made me want to become a labor and delivery nurse. Through my rotation, as well as talking with mothers, I learned enough to know that no mother ever forgets her labor and delivery nurse. I strive to become a labor and delivery nurse due to the gift they give when they helped patients realize a strength they never knew they had, a strength deep inside themselves. A strength that takes women into motherhood and changes how they see the world forever.
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