Miercoles

Today was my 3rd and final day observing and being observed. Although I have not yet been checked off on all of my required skills to start doing my own visits tomorrow I'm on the schedule to go ahead and start. No big deal... at least the physical act of performing prenatals and postpartums; the hard part is following the Casa protocols. I swear, the protocols here have me feeling like I don't know how to do anything. Combine that with being observed (sometimes hostilely) and with trying to speak a language you in no way speak and it can make for a pretty discouraging and tense (to say the least) day.

Today the staff midwife was Laverne and she is so awesome I can't describe it. She's hilarious and more experienced than any midwife I've ever worked with. I was doing a prenatal while she was observing and I was starting to sweat a little because I could not palpate the baby's head... so of course I start thinking my palpation skills suck even though I have not been wrong before. The mom had a kind of pendulous abdomen and I was having to dig. Anyhoo, I confess to Laverne that I can't locate the head in the maternal pelvis (mom was 35 weeks so el nino should have been head down) and that I am feeling pointy parts on both sides which I don't normally feel. Turns out the baby is straight OP and I do not suck after all. Also, because Laverne's palpation skills rock so hard she helped me feel the baby's freaking chin.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to be second on which would technically mean doing visits on my own... I don't feel like the resident I have been working with thinks my skills are up to snuff even though I have been doing this for 7 years and she has been doing it for exactly 3 months... but I digress. Yesterday she double checked my application of a diaper so I don't think she has a lot of faith in my abilities.

The way that they do visits here (or "citas") is different; they just schedule the visits for either morning or afternoon anytime between the hours the clinic is open. So, these women cross the border from Juarez and if the bridge is backed up they all show up all of the sudden at one time and it gets crazy. It's especially crazy when you have not yet managed to learn how to say "Please pee in a cup." The secretaries are usually helpful (although they do not socialize with the interns) and they will get the women through weight check and urine dip for you.

We had a woman in labor today but she just transported for failure to tolerate labor. Oh well.