Sophia Delatore

C-Section Delivery Journal

This week, I had the opportunity to witness a Cesarean section of a little baby girl. This
mom was a gravida 3 para 1 meaning this was her third pregnancy with one child at home, one
currently about to be delivered and unfortunately one baby from a spontaneous abortion (fetal
demise at 12 weeks). She had a repeat scheduled C section due to blood pressure complications.
She was just under the 37 week marking putting her into the preterm category. When I arrived to
her Labor and Delivery room she was getting ready to walk over to the OR for the procedure.
They give me a wig cap and shoe covers to wear into the OR. The Mom’s demeanor was
appropriate for the situation being a little nervous and anxious about the procedure but the nurses
were truly amazing at being supportive for her. Once we walked over to the OR she got on the
OR table and that’s when things started moving very quickly. One thing I noticed that was really
neat was that one of the nurse’s role was to stay right by her side and explain everything that was
happening and answer any questions she had. Next the CRNA came and performed the Spinal
which I thought was interesting how he described it as “feeling like a jellyfish sting” which is
oddly specific but must not have been too painful because the Mom (who said she has a pretty
low pain tolerance) took it like a champ. After that the nurses laid her down in a supine position
and then the doctor walked in the OR. NICU was also patient due to the baby being a preemie.
After the doctor’s arrival a Time out was performed and everyone stopped what they were doing
and listened to the single nurse explaining what was going on and the patient’s information. Then
it was showtime. Due to the fact that there were so many people in the room, I was unable to get
the great view but I did see the pulling and tugging on the different layers to reveal the uterus. It
was a little more barbaric than I expected but I do understand that they just do not have the time
to be messing around. After about 20 minutes of the initial incision the baby was delivered and
here I was thinking C-sections took hours. The baby was immediately handed over to the NICU
nurses who took the baby to the warmer for assessment. Initially the baby needed stimulation and
suctioned frequently and it took about 30 seconds to get the baby to cry. The mom did not get to
do skin to skin which I thought was unfortunate. She only got to see her baby for 2 seconds
getting rolled past her as the baby headed over to the NICU. They then sutured the mom up and
stapled her incision closed and cleaned her up and took her to the PACU area where she stayed
for about 2 hours. Overall, this was a very eye opening experience to how different a c-section is
from a vaginal birth. I cannot wait for my next delivery to be a part of. I truly had an experience
like no other and once again I am blown away by how fascinating medicine can be.