I saw it today, a twisted lie.
"Is everything ok?"
The answer should have been:
"No, your baby's heart rate is less than half that of normal right now, and there is evidence that shows that a heart rate below 60 is not sufficient for brain perfusion and if this goes on much longer, your baby may suffer long term effects. Now, please turn onto your other side."
Instead, she got:
"Yes, everything's just fine. Let's roll you over."
To a point, there isn't a point to scaring the poor woman when we see this quite frequently (thanks to pitocin augmentation and continuous fetal monitoring) and it generally goes away quickly, and why raise her anxiety level when that might even contribute to further stress on her fetus? She doesn't know enough and it would take too long to explain and does she really want to know anyway? Is she looking for a real answer, or just some reassurance?
What's the point?
I still feel like she ought to be told the truth. I feel funny about her being lied to, even though we simply don't have time to give her contextually complete information.
It did pass, and everything was fine, in the end. She had a happy, healthy baby with good Apgar scores.
Which means the kid has a good start, despite the challenges his 17 year old mother will face.
And, by the way, I am in charge of 5 labor nurses who are sitting here twiddling their thumbs. Would LocalEMS please bring us a 32-week abrupting crackmomma? I'm just putting it out there. I'd like something to do, please.
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