Any other healthcare workers totally freaked out?

FiancB

I'm a nursing student. Today we started on prenatal stuff and I left lecture feeling like 

Baby rabies has been taken down a notch. Most of the lecture discussed interventions to prevent bleeding out, which is apparently the #1 complication worldwide. IDK, I have a background in animal science which really focuses on reproduction a lot, so I felt like I knew a lot, but today it really hit home how scary and BLOODY everything can be. I also flashed back to volunteering in the hospital nursery and seeing posted notes about policies regarding when mom or baby died. 

I have to remind myself I know lots of women who had lots of babies and everyone's healthy and happy. I do not know a single person that died or was in danger of dying this way, but in healthcare since you see the worst of everything, it makes it all seem much more common than it really is. 

Made me think of my mom, who was a nurse. In some ways it calms you down to have those skills, but at the same time you always jump to worst case scenario. If I told my mom my neck hurt, she made sure I didn't have meningitis. If my stomach hurt, she made sure I didn't have appendicitis. 

So. Yeah. Sometimes I'm not sure if a healthcare background is a good or bad thing. It's mostly good... I think... 

I'll probably be the worst patient ever. 

BrOwNh2211

I completely feel the same way in my last month of nursing school!!!

FiancB

Basically it was like

If you don't massage the fundus? SHE'LL BLEED TO DEATH.

If you massage the fundus wrong? SHE'LL BLEED TO DEATH.

If she can't pee or poop? SHE'LL BLEED TO DEATH. 

Having a C-section? SHE'LL BLEED TO DEATH. 

Also, let me tell you about the time I pulled out a clot the size of a volleyball!

And analyzing lochia oh my. Nothing like going into sim and pulling the sheets off the mannequin to find a pad full of cherry pie filling. Dammit, I used to like to use that as a topping...

[Deleted User]

LOL baby rabies.

But anyways, they drill that ish into you so you can know what to expect for the teensy percent of women who get in trouble in child birth.  Rest assured that the vast, vast, vast majority of complications can be seen coming before they happen by a good, experienced birth professional.  Perhaps check out birthwithoutfear.com  They have great birth stories on there.

DutchLucyLu

My DH is actually the other way around. He's an anesthetic technician and he works on A LOT of C-sections (including emergency ones). He's always like, "I don't see why all these women freak out so badly, it's a really standard procedure!" And then I have to explain to him that just because he sees a lot of C-sections doesn't mean it can't be stressful to someone who's never had one.

He means well, but really. xD 

[Deleted User]

DutchLucyLu said:

My DH is actually the other way around. He's an anesthetic technician and he works on A LOT of C-sections (including emergency ones). He's always like, "I don't see why all these women freak out so badly, it's a really standard procedure!" And then I have to explain to him that just because he sees a lot of C-sections doesn't mean it can't be stressful to someone who's never had one.

He means well, but really. xD 

Yeah - for someone who sees it constantly and has never had one and will never have one it's probably not a huge deal.  For women who have had one or might have one it is major abdominal surgery...