Medical Question: Flu and Pregnancy

Bonnie asks:

My question has to do with one of my characters who gets a deadly form of influenza (swine and avian flu combined) early in her pregnancy. She winds up in the ICU. She survives but then discovers she’s pregnant. She worried about the baby.

What are the possible dangers to the baby?

Heidi says:

The flu is actually more dangerous to the pregnant woman herself than to the fetus. Most women and healthcare providers delay preventative and treatment of the flu because they fear possible effects on the baby. More women in their third trimester of pregnancy die of the flu, than anything else including accidents and domestic violence.

Untreated flu symptoms that can and usually do send pregnant woman to the ICU include such things as high fevers, dehydration, and viral infections. The effects on the fetus include an increase in still births, brain damage, premature birth, and spontaneous abortion. Woman early in pregnancy are at greatest risk for spontaneous abortion. This would be the case for your patient. Treatment of the flu (antiviral's), is the best thing for this patient, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.

I encourage all pregnant patients to get the flu shot and to call their health care provider immediately for flu like symptoms. Tamiflu and Relenza work best when given within the first 48 hours of flu symptoms. Always your best defense is a good offense, get your flu shot.

***********************************************************************

Adelheideh Creston lives in New York. She is former military and married military as well. Her grandmother was a WAVE and inspired her to become a nurse. Heidi spent some time as a certified nursing assistant, then an LPN, working in geriatrics, med surge, psych, telemetry and orthopedics. She’s been an RN several years with a specialty in labor and delivery and neonatology. Her experience has primarily been with military medicine, but she has also worked in the civilian sector.

Heidi is an avid reader. She loves Christian fiction mysteries and suspense. Though, don’t recommend the gory graphic stuff to her… please. She enjoys writing her own stories and is yet unpublished. 

Nurse Assisted Deliveries: Heidi Creston

Babies come when they want to, not necessarily when we want them to. Every labor and delivery nurse and OB provider are well aware of this fact. Nurse assisted deliveries happen daily.

The primary reasons for nurse assisted deliveries are:

1. Physicians are over extended.  They have more than one patient delivering at one time or are  covering OR and/or ER as well as OB.
2. They are not on site due to office hours.
3. Precipitous Deliveries (baby comes quickly).

Labor and delivery nurses are specially trained to monitor and keep close observation on a patient's status in order to notify the OB provider in a timely manner. Most patients are kept on continual electronic fetal monitoring. The pattern on the fetal strip provides information concerning both fetal and maternal status to include how soon delivery may be.

Sterile vaginal exams or cervical examinations to monitor dilation is another skill that L&D nurses are trained to perform. Nurses also educate their patients to report any signs of increased pressure.

It is always preferable for the OB provider to be present for the delivery, due to the increased risk to the patient (possible birth complications such shoulder dystocia), but in the event the provider does not make it, labor nurses are trained to deliver.

The L&D staff will make every effort to contact the provider, they will stop any measures taken to induce labor (turn off pitocin, instruct patient how to breathe thru contractions), provide support, and set up for delivery.

If the delivery is imminent, the nurse will guide the patient in her delivery, guiding the head, checking for nuchal cord. A nuchal cord is when the  umbilical cord is around the neck.  In some cases the cord can be untangled by hand.  Tight cords need to be reduced, clamped and cut.

Nurses also must be careful of other body parts being entangled by the cord as well. Delivery of the body is usually rapid once the head and shoulders are out.

If there are no complications with the infant, nurses will usually leave the baby on the mother’s chest with an uncut cord for 3-5 minutes. Nurses do not attempt to deliver the placenta, but if the placenta delivers spontaneously they place it in a container for the provider.

After delivery, if the provider remains unavailable, the nurse will clean the perineum and assess for tears and bleeding. Given the situation (excessive bleeding) the nurse may restart the pitocin, give a dose of methergine or hemabate, provide continuous fundal massage, and or perform a vaginal sweep. Upon arrival of the provider, the nurse will give them a full report.

Although most deliveries are uneventful, there are many things that could go fatally wrong with the delivery itself or during the post partum period. These include but are not limited to: malpresentation (ie: breech, compound limbs), cord prolapse/cord accidents/nuchal cords/body cords, placental abruption, and post partum hemorrhage.

******************************************************************************
Adelheideh Creston lives in New York. She is former military and married military as well. Her grandmother was a WAVE and inspired her to become a nurse. Heidi spent some time as a certified nursing assistant, then an LPN, working in geriatrics, med surge, psych, telemetry and orthopedics. She’s been an RN several years with a specialty in labor and delivery and neonatology. Her experience has primarily been with military medicine, but she has also worked in the civilian sector.

 

Heidi is an avid reader. She loves Christian fiction mysteries and suspense. Though, don’t recommend the gory graphic stuff to her… please. She enjoys writing her own stories and is yet unpublished.

Up and Coming

Hey all! Hope you have had a great week. Anyone holiday shopping? Finished yet?

Seemingly, I have survived my first week post shoulder dislocation. Last Sunday, I asked people to post in the comments section cause of said injury and I would pick a winner today. Well, congratulations, Sandra Ardoin, who said: If it was like my brother's dislocation, someone (who had no clue what they were doing) was trying to teach you judo.

That made me laugh out loud. So, Sandra is the happy winner of a $15.00 Visa gift card and a book of her choice. I'll give her a few options. Sandra, send your address to me at jredwood1@gmail.com and we'll figure out what book you'd like to read.

The real cause of my injury--- a cable machine push-up. First exercise on the second rep. My trainer dude was nearly as white as I was and though I do appreciate his offer to pop my shoulder back into place... unless you are in the ED with Fentanyl in your pocket... please stay away from my dangling arm.

This week:

Monday: Heidi Creston talks about nurse-assisted deliveries. She's a stellar OB RN. I know, because she's been a great eye for my character's OB issues.

Wednesday: Medical question concerning influenza and the possible complications for a pregnant woman. I'll also be over at Christian Mama's Guide discussing all things pediatrics.

Friday: Cop versus Nurse. Always a fun time in the ER when the police bring in a prisoner. Good way to add conflict to your ms.

Anyone else typing in a sling? Have a great week...

Jordyn

Pediatric Controversies: Immunizations 3/3

I'm concluding my three part series on one area of pediatrics that causes a lot of controversy. Immunizations.

Why don't people choose to immunize their children? I would say a large majority of these parents would claim a concern about Thimerisol (covered in Part One) and the much talked about but unsupported risk that there is a link between autism and the MMR vaccine (covered in Part Two). This link is not supported by the medical research.

Some people choose not to vaccinate because they're possibly suspicious of western medicine or in general prefer herbal or homeopathic remedies. 

Another reason? I think it's because we largely don't see children suffering or dying from these illnesses that we vaccinate against. People who lived during times when polio was a known affliction in the US probably had a different opinion about vaccinating against polio.




H1N1/Widipedia

 An interesting thing happened early in the fall of 2009. H1N1, otherwise known as the "swine flu" made an outbreak. It affected a large number of people but the pediatric population, particularly late elementary through early high school, had some very serious complications. Several children nationally required mechanical ventilation (a breathing machine) to save their life. Several children died.

There is a vaccine for H1N1. In fact, it's been included in the regular flu vaccine this year and last year. However, in 2009, distribution came a few months after the outbreak. The interesting part? It was scarce because so many people wanted it for themselves and their children. They didn't want them to die from the swine flu. Most people don't see children ill or dying of the diseases we routinely vaccinate against. The immediacy of the experience is lost.

If you have chosen not to immunize, I hope you've taken the time to research the diseases and their complications. Choosing not to immunize is a risk as well. How does this play out in fiction?

Let's say a 6 month old child presents to the ED with high fever and a rash and has never been immunized. Now, we as the ER staff have to worry about all those diseases the child is not protected against. This may set the child up for additional lab tests and procedures. Parents aren't generally happy when we explain why we have to add these other tests. This is an excellent way to add conflict.

What are your thoughts about immunizations? I'm happy to post any dissenting, well-articulated opinion in the comments section. No derogatory remarks please. I know this issue has a lot of passion on both sides.