Labor and Birth Process Discussion

Case Studies

Chapter 13, Labor and Birth Process

1. Emily, age 32, has an obstetrical history of G1, T0, P0, A0, and L0. Emily’s week of gestation is 39.1. Emily telephones the health care provider’s office and tells the nurse she believes she is in labor. Based on her assessment, the nurse advises her to have her husband bring her to the labor and birth unit. Emily arrives and is admitted. She is talkative and excited about being in labor and describes her contractions and discomfort as mild.

The following are the assessment findings of the examining nurse: Maternal vital signs are stable. Fetal heart tones with the external fetal monitor are reassuring. Vaginal exam indicates the cervix is 3 cm dilated, 40% effaced, membranes intact with the presenting part engaged.

Ten minutes after the vaginal examination by the nurse, Emily says, “I think I just wet my pants.” (Learning Objectives 2, 6, 7, and 8)

What questions might the nurse have asked Emily to determine that she may be in true labor? What prenatal history information should the nurse have obtained during the telephone call?
Explain the meaning of the nurse’s assessment findings. Identify the stage and phase of labor, listing the physiologic and psychological changes during this stage. What positions and activities would be appropriate for Emily based on the assessment data? Why?
What are the nursing interventions that would be appropriate for the nurse to implement based on Emily’s statement that “I think I just wet my pants”?
2. Diane, age 22, has been in labor for 8 hours. Her cervical examination reveals she is 3 cm, 30% effaced, and –1 station. Diane has been feeling most of her pain in her lower back. (Learning Objectives 3, 4, and 5)

Given your understanding of the 5 P’s and the cardinal movements of labor, discuss why Diane is having back labor and why her progress is slow.
What strategies may the nurse implement to assist Diane in progressing in her labor?
Case Studies,

Chapter 14, Nursing Management During Labor and Birth

1.Desiree, a 28-year-old G2P1, is admitted to the labor and birth unit. Her birth plan indicates that she is planning natural childbirth without pharmacological interventions. She has attended childbirth education classes. Desiree is considered low risk based on her personal and family health history and physical examination. Her pregnancy has progressed without complications. She is approximately 38 weeks pregnant. Vaginal assessment reveals cervical dilation at 10 cm, 100% effaced, and +1 station. Position of the fetus is LOA. The external fetal monitor indicates a reassuring fetal heart rate at 130 beats per minute. Maternal status is stable. (Learning Objectives 1, 5, and 8)

Based on the vaginal assessment, what is the stage of labor and what are the appropriate nursing interventions for this stage of labor?
Explain how the nurse determined that the external fetal monitor would be appropriate for Desiree. What factors would necessitate a change to internal fetal monitoring during labor?
Desiree says, “I’m not sure I can cope with the pain much longer.” How would you respond, considering her birth plan, stage of labor, and assessment data?
2.Emily, a 26-year-old G3P2, has been in labor for 5 hours and is 7 cm, 90% effaced, and +2 station.She has external fetal monitoring in place, which reveals a baseline fetal heart rate of 120 bpm, minimal variability, and occasional variable decelerations. Suddenly, as a contraction is beginning to subside, the fetal heart rate drops to a low of 80 bpm and has a slow return to the baseline 1 minute after the contraction has ended.(Learning Objectives 3 and 4)

A.What is happening to Emily’s baby at this point in time?What does this mean?

B.What role do you, as the nurse, play regarding fetal assessment and what interventions do you need to implement/recommend at this point in time?

Chapter 21, Nursing Management of Labor and Birth at Risk

1.Laura is a 26-year-old G2P1 who had a caesarean delivery for fetal distress with her first pregnancy. Laura is now struggling with deciding between a repeat caesarean delivery or attempting a VBAC.(Learning Objective 9)

In order to ensure that Laura has the facts to assist her in her decision, explain the risks of a repeat caesarean delivery.
Laura can’t understand why more women don’t want to try a VBAC delivery.Discuss the possible reasons for this.
Describe the management of care for a woman attempting a VBAC delivery.
2.Carol, age 17, is pregnant with her first child.Her menstrual dates are accurate and her date of conception is limited to one possible day.Her physician gives her an EDC of March 28. Carol has gone past her due date and refuses to have her labor induced.Carol states, “My grandmother says that the baby will come when it is good and ready.”It is now April 14 and Carol is at 42 3/7 weeks’ gestation. She calls the office and reports that she is having a significant lower backache and she just passed “a glob of bloody mucus” from her vagina.(Learning Objective 5)

A.Discuss the risks a prolonged pregnancy places on Carol.

B.What risks are there for Carol’s unborn baby?

C.Describe the nursing care required for women in labor with a prolonged pregnancy.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
• Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
• Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.