16 and Pregnant

Today was another great day on the Labor and Delivery floor! My mentor, T, had a family member who was induced for labor so we were able to help deliver her baby. I was able to be with her all day and through the delivery. The family didn't know the sex of the baby so I videotaped their reaction when they finally revealed it was a girl. That was very fun and a touching moment to witness. (Side note: All nursing students should have to take a  class in videography because I have handled so many video cameras since I started my externship! I find it so stressful because I don't want to mess it up for the family. I am way more comfortable putting in an IV than videotaping!)

As the title of this post shows, my the rest of my day was straight up out of an episode of 16 and Pregnant. I only saw one patient who was over the age of 20! I understand that people come different backgrounds and lifestyles and age doesn't always correlate with being a good parent, but these patients didn't seem to want to even deliver the baby. It's amazing to see the difference in the excitement between a patient who is older and has a partner than a younger patient who is alone. I enjoyed spending my day with these girls but I also felt for them, and the baby, because I know the responsibility of a baby calls for maturity, etc. I just hope that these women receive some sort of education regarding family planning before they are discharged from the hospital. Annnyways, I'll get off of my soapbox now end with a funny story that happened yesterday...

I was admitting a patient (also 16 but besides the point) and she had a guy with her. As part of the admission process I needed to identify the relationship of the patient to the people in the room so I asked him what his relationship was to the patient. He quickly (and seriously) replied "Baby Daddy". Now, as you can imagine that is not one of the options in the drop down menu so I asked if I should just put "Significant Other" and both of them shouted, "No!!" I felt thoroughly awkward at this point because they were glaring at me as if I had tried to marry them on the spot so I said, "I'll just put Father" and he was like "Yeah, yeah, that's what I said...Baby Daddy"... Ohhhkayy, after being thoroughly embarrassed (and a little confused), I finished the admission as quickly as possible and left the room. But, even with moments like this I still love every minute on the L & D floor!