Thursday, November 10, 2011
Disclaimer:  This post will contain language routinely used in OB world.  If you are unfamiliar with or offended by the proper terms for female child-birthing parts, this post might not be for you, and you should stop reading.

It was a dark and (not so) stormy night.  I, having delivered all the babies on the board, was sleeping soundly in my call room.  Then, my pager went off.  In my hazy just awoken from a (not so) deep sleep, I looked at the number and thought, "huh, that's not the triage number...".  So I called it back and heard, "Dr. Sears, you're needed in birthing suite 2".  Birthing suite 2?  There's no one in birthing suite 2....

So I crawled out of bed, wiped the goop out of my eyes, and wandered over to BS2.  The nurse said that lady had come in saying she woke up and felt "something between her legs".  I lifted the sheets with plans to check her cervix, and was greeted with this:

(You thought I was going to show you a cervix, didn't you?)
I was greeted with a teeny little premature newborn foot.  Only it wasn't in someones hand, and seen above.  It was sticking out of the momma's vagina. 

For those of you not familiar with the normal delivery process of a baby, let me explain what usually happens.  First the head comes out.  Then the body.  Then the feet.

The feet are not supposed to come out first.

Needless to say, I felt a little outside my pay grade.  So I called for backup, in the form of a scalpel wielding obstetrician.  We whisked her to the back for a c-section of not only the little girl who tried to kick her way out of the uterus, but also her twin sister, who was pretty much sitting on top of her to put a little weight behind the kicks. 

Momma and both babies are doing fine.

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About Me

I am a Family Medicine intern at a community hospital in Indiana, navigating the new world of being a physician. I am privileged to work in a field I love, where every day is a new and unpredictable challenge.
I am not only a doctor, but also a cyclist, runner, DIYer in the making, lover of the outdoors, traveler, and human.
Human, MD is a glimpse into the world of a young doctor who is just trying to stay true to herself through the grueling whirlwind of residency.

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