hey L&D RNs: the 411 on tubes for hospital laborin' mamas

[tinyshoes]

With all the brilliance and experience on MDC, I thought I could get some answers to my questions about mamas laboring in the hospital, and Tube Rules....

...like, when a woman gets an epidural, first she needs an IV to get a bag of fluid (tube #1) then her epidural catheter (tube 2) and probably (often? always?) a urinary catheter (tube #3) and sometimes an intra-uterine pressure catheter (tube #4.)

What about a c-section mama? Is the surgical cite shunted? (tube #5)

When do these tubes come out? When mom starts pushing, is the urinary catheter removed before that? After?

Just very curious about this stuff...I know what happened to me when I was in the hospital (4 tubes! :LOL ) but I'd love to hear more on the topic.

I think if, before settling on epidural anesthesia during week 34 of my first pregnancy, I had known that I'd have to pee on a bedpan or with a urinary catheter, I would've evaluatied my options differently. An epidural is more than "just an epidural."

[eilonwy]

Okay, I had lots of tubes during labor, and some after:

1) Antibiotics (GBS+)
2) Fluids (I was very dehydrated)
3) Epidural
4) IUPC (after the monitor lost his heartrate a few times)
5) More antibiotics (fever)
6) Magnesium sulfate (rising blood pressure and swelling, and very low, concentrated urine output)
7) Foley catheter -- this was placed after Eli's birth.

The antibiotics, fluid and magnesium I wasn't taken off of for 48 hours, and I had to take an oral antibiotic after that. I begged for the removal of the foley cath after (I think) 24 hours, and they gave me a trial run... boy, I've never peed so fast in my life, let me tell you!

The IUPC came out with Eli, and the epidural came out about 6 hours after birth.