My First (sort of) Real Patient!

One of the things that I heard about way back when I interviewed at Stony Brook just over a year ago was the Moms Program. Run through the Obstetrics & Gynecology Student Interest Group, it allows each student to be paired with a pregnant woman and to attend all of her prenatal visits and, eventually, the birth. I signed up immediately and was paired with a very nice woman named Lisa. So far, I have attended 3 appointments with her and observed a sonogram. She is about 26 weeks pregnant, so at this point, the baby is fully developed and just growing bigger, and I can actually tell what I'm looking at when I watch the sonogram being done! (I'm pretty sure I also know the gender. Lisa and her husband want to be surprised, although they have mentioned that one or two sonogram pictures made them think they know the answer.)

Lisa, like all of the women involved in the Moms Program, receives her care from the midwife service at Stony Brook. (Certified Nurse Midwives are masters-trained nurses who specialize in women's reproductive care.) Apparently the approach to childbirth is very different when you have a midwife birth as opposed to an MD birth. Hopefully I will be able to attend this birth so I can learn some more. (I also really hope that she doesn't go into labor in the middle of the night. Then again, with her first baby, who is now 17 months old and absolutely adorable, she was in labor for over 50 hours, so that would give me plenty of time to get there!)

The office where Lisa gets her care is right down the highway from school, so it has been very easy for me to attend her appointments and then get back to class. At yesterday's appointment, I got a real treat. The midwife let me use the Doppler heart rate monitor to find the baby's heartbeat! She explained how to feel around to find where the baby feels the most firm (its back) and then slowly search for the heartbeat. I found it pretty quickly, recognizing the fast swish-swish sound. Clinical experiences like this definitely help keep me motivated when I am slogging through courses like neuroscience!