Latest / The Birth Lounge Podcast / Ep. 496 Hospital Triage Explained: Why You Might Not Be Admitted Yet (and What to Do About It)

Transcript

Ep. 496 Hospital Triage Explained: Why You Might Not Be Admitted Yet (and What to Do About It) · The Birth Lounge Podcast

• 0:00
  funny enough, our doctors, our nurses, our midwives, our anesthesiologists, they are all practicing labor.
• 0:06
  So when you go into labor, you are actually the only person that hasn't practiced being in that situation before Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Birth Lounge Podcast.
• You know what I was thinking the other day is that we practice every other really important thing in our life except our birth.
• We have dress rehearsals for weddings.
• AB- you know, whoever's proposing has probably practiced that.
• We practice job interviews, and we practice our speeches before we give those.
• But we don't practice for labor, which is so weird considering it is such an important day of our lives And funny enough, our doctors, our nurses, our midwives, our anesthesiologists, they are all practicing labor.
• So when you go into labor, you are actually the only person that hasn't practiced being in that situation before Well, that power dynamic didn't really work for me, so I created a place for you to participate in a birth simulation so that when you get into labor, it's not the first time that you're experiencing the sensations of having to make decisions and have conversations and make choices that you really need to think about You've done so much childbirth education leading up to this point.
• You know a lot, but there's a difference between knowing and being actually able to do that in labor, and I wanna help you bridge that with the Labor Live Challenge.
• This is a three-day live birth simulation where I'm going to give you prompts and step you through a real live labor, and you get to do it with me, alongside me, see your choices, have these conversations with your provider, and then see what the outcome of your birth would be And one of the coolest parts, if I don't say so myself, is that you get to do this every single month.
• A new labor every month.
• So by the time your baby gets here, you could have practiced being into labor several times.
• And now we have even that playing field and everyone who is in your room has practiced this.
• Everyone knows what they want and everyone is there to support you and because you've practiced, you know exactly what you want and how to be flexible if things change If you want the full picture of this challenge and a way to practice your birth before you're actually giving birth, join LaborLive.com
• something that I think so many birthing people are unprepared for when it comes to having their baby in the hospital, and it is something that they don't expect, so they don't know how to plan for it, and so I want to teach you about triage.
• I wanna teach you about triage so that you know what to expect when you get to the hospital so that you know how to plan accordingly and how to use your birth team in the right ways.
• It's all about having the right people in the right spots, doing the right things at the right time, and you can have your ideal birth.
• I see it all the time.
• I wanna help you navigate that.
• So let's talk about triage.
• Now, when you get to the hospital, you don't get to just go to the L&D floor.
• You have to go through this, like, filtering process first that is going to determine whether you can be admitted to the hospital or if you need to go back home and labor a little bit longer at home.
• Now, this is generally around six centimeters or if someone is really ready for some medical pain support, medical pain relief, um, management.
• So there are gonna be different things.
• There's not one thing that determines whether you are admitted to the hospital or whether you're sent back home.
• It is...
• It's a kind of variety of things that need to line up to make sure that you are ready to be admitted into the hospital.
• So before you get to the hospital, you will have already spoken to the medical team multiple times.
• So the first time is gonna be when labor gets started, and this is two kind of indicators of this, is when the waters release.
• So I don't like to say when your water breaks because it insinuates that something's breaking, and that's negative, and I think that this is a positive thing 'cause we need this to happen for labor to go.
• Um, it is a surge of hormones, and it just is an extra amp into your labor.
• And so it's a release for me, which is a positive thing.
• So you call your doctor if your waters release, and then also call your doctors if you feel like your contractions are starting to be in a rhythmic pattern.
• So they're no longer questionable of whether they are, um, Braxton Hicks or not, and they have been around for a minute.
• So, um, you've been tracking them for at least an hour or two, and you realize that these are, are kind of real-deal things.
• Call your doctor for that as well.
• You should also, if you have a doula, be in contact with that person too.
• The second time that you're gonna call your doctors is going to be, uh, when you actually transition to the hospital.
• So you're gonna wanna call them and let them know that you're coming, and you're gonna wanna call them and let them know any update that has happened since the last time that you talked to them and if, um, you have any preference for pain management, medical pain management.
• So if you've already decided you want an epidural, if you've already decided you want nitrous oxide, if you've already decided you want X, Y, and Z, um, go ahead and get those orders in.
• Go ahead and get those nurses working on that so that when you get to the room, um, you can get that as quickly as possible.
• Now, when you get to triage, um, it is not always a quick process.
• You have to think that sometimes there are people who are further along in labor than you, and also think that if you're at the hospital, then you did achieve your goal.
• Your goal was to get to the hospital so that you were safe, so that you, um, got a read on your labor.
• Whatever your reason is, you are now at the hospital.
• You're surrounded by medical staff.
• You're surrounded by people that you chose.
• You chose to birth here and have your baby here.
• Trust in that, and know that if your baby is going to be here soon, they will absolutely get you to an L&D room.
• Um, understand that it's a fine balance and, you know, prioritizing different things back in the L&D room.
• So keep that in mind when you think about this.
• But you get to triage.
• You're gonna come, um, with this first nurse, okay? And this first nurse is gonna do what's like a check-in, personal information check, and they're gonna wanna know things like your name, your address, your due date, um, how labor is going, um, your partner's name, all that jazz, okay? And then they're gonna wanna know, um, like I say, a labor update.
• How are your contractions doing? How far apart are they? How m- how long are they lasting? Has your water released? Um, things like that.
• When did labor start? You're gonna wanna need...
• You're gonna wanna need.
• You're gonna need to know what has happened with the labor, and it's okay if you have a tracker on your phone.
• It's okay if you're keeping up with it in your mind.
• It's okay if you depend on your doula to do that.
• Um, just know that somebody is gonna need to answer those questions about the progression of labor when you get to triage.
• The next thing that's gonna happen is they're gonna take you into the room because they're gonna need to know how far along you are in the progression of labor, meaning how much are you effaced.
• It's a percentage, so it's, like, 20% versus 80%.
• We're trying to get to 100%.
• And how much you're dilated, and that is in centimeters.
• So it is, like, one centimeter, three centimeters.
• We're trying to get to 10 centimeters.
• So you're gonna be taken back there.
• You usually have to be six centimeters or so to be admitted to the hospital on a regular night, so not a super busy night, okay? Um, also, if you're not that, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna be in labor.
• There's not one thing that determines whether you get admitted to the hospital or you get sent home.
• Um, that is just a general rule of thumb.
• Of course, if you're ready for pain management medically, um, like again, an epidural, nitrous oxide, uh, all sorts of pain medicine is, is available to you.
• then you'll be admitted to the hospital as well 'cause you are needing medical support.
• Um, also in the room, you're gonna have the fetal monitors hooked up to your belly.
• They're gonna wanna know about your baby.
• Um, they're gonna take your blood pressure and your temperature, and then they're also probably going to ask to place an IV in your arm, which is totally up to you.
• You can say no.
• You can say yes.
• There are pros.
• There are cons.
• Um, same thing with the cervical check.
• You can say yes.
• You can say no.
• Pros and cons.
• That's a different video, but know that both of those are optional.
• Um, also, if at check-in, if at that first nurse you told her that you think your water's released, they are gonna probably test the fluid that's on your underwear and/or coming out of you, um, just to confirm that it is amniotic fluid, and then they just do it by a litmus test.
• They, like, press it to your underwear, catch some, and put it on the paper.
• Um, and it turns a certain color So after all of that, they're gonna ask you about pain relief, um, and hopefully transition you to an L and D room so that you can have your baby.
• Now, I mentioned in the beginning of the, in the video that you might have to wait when you get to triage, and I wanna give you a simple reframe of mind, is that you did achieve your goal of getting to the hospital, getting safe, and having access to medical support.
• It was just in a different way than what you had expected, and that often leads to failed expectations, right? When you have an expectation and what actually happens doesn't live up to that expectation, sometimes we feel let down or sad or even like we failed, and that's not the case and that's not the time to be processing all of that.
• You need to set that aside and, and just reframe your mind that you are in the hospital.
• There's people that you trust.
• It is in a different way than you thought it was gonna be, but you've still achieved your goal of being at the hospital.
• Now, a few things that you can do during this time, take walks.
• Take long, long walks.
• You don't have to stay at the hospital.
• At that point, you can still go out and walk the parking lot, head to the nearest mall, go walk around a park.
• Like, just walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.
• Make sure that your hips are moving, um, and then also be con- be tracking your pattern of contractions, right? So we wanna keep up to date on the labor pattern so that when you go back to the hospital, um, you can give them an update.
• Okay.
• If you have any questions, drop them below in the comments.
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• We are at tranquilitybyhehe on both platforms.
• I cannot wait to help you birth like a queen, and I wanna see you in The Birth Lounge.
• You can visit thebirthlounge.com
• to see more.
• Hey there.
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