Every year we have at least one woman who comes into the ER to find out that she is having a baby…like NOW! They say that they didn’t know that they were pregnant. Whether or not they really didn’t know or not that is one heck of a surprise for us, for the mother, and for the mother’s family. Hello baby! I’m always excited whenever we have an “ER” baby. Other people are not so much excited; they are petrified. Sometimes, I think that I am working in the wrong department.
The most tragic birth was a woman who gave birth to her son in a toilet; her baby did not make it. The grandmother suspected that her daughter was pregnant, but her daughter denied knowing.
Last year we had a very athletic young girl who did daily abdominal crunches and came to the ER complaining of severe abdominal pain. The ER doctor said that she was simply constipated after his examination. I knew a little better from the moaning that I could here from where I work. That girl was in labor! Ten minutes later, she had a beautiful baby. Their family is doing well.
We had an older woman come to our ER complaining of abdominal and lower back pain. She is of normal height and weight and is a daily drinker. She had been at the urgent care clinic a couple days before, diagnosed with having a UTI, and given Cipro. The nurse practitioner noted a hard, lop-sided abdomen. The ER doctor wanted to x-ray the woman and give her an enema. The nurse practitioner wanted a pregnancy test done before even though the woman denied being pregnant. Bingo. Prego. Thirty minutes later she had her baby. Someone didn’t do a great physical assessment at the clinic. Remind me not to go there ever.