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With a relentless focus on excellence in healthcare, Pullman Regional Hospital presents The Health Podcast.

Deborah Howell (Host): You know, so much has changed since the days when our mothers gave birth to us. So today, let's get caught up on the birthing experience. To talk about labor and delivery at Pullman Regional Hospital in the year 2022, today, we'd like to welcome Kailub Whitman, a labor and delivery nurse here at Pullman. Hello, Kailub.

Kailub Whitman: Hello.

Deborah Howell (Host): You're a labor and delivery nurse. Wow. Could you explain what your job entails and how you contribute to the birthing experience?

Kailub Whitman: Absolutely. I'm a labor and delivery nurse here at Pullman BirthPlace, have been for about 10 years now. But here at BirthPlace, we do a heck of a lot more than just delivering babies. So, just to kind of go over a few things, we take care of the perinatal patients. We take care of postpartum moms. We take care of the newborns. So our jobs as nurses here entail a wide variety of things. We consider our rooms here at BirthPlace as LDRP rooms, so meaning that you're admitted into one room and you discharge from the same suite. So it's kind of nice being able to get cozied into a room and feel comfortable and relaxed for your entire stay instead of shuffling rooms from when you have your baby and then to the postpartum

as far as what my job entails with a little bit more detail, the easiest way to explain this as just kind of start from the beginning. we take care of the perinatal patients. Some moms, before baby's born, need a little extra care, whether that be for mom or for babies. So we do a little extra monitoring on those mothers, just for the safety of the patient or for the baby either one. From there, we also care for our laboring mothers from the time that they come into us. We spend a lot of time assisting them with pursuing what their birth plan wishes are. We really try to promote the teamwork between the mom and her partner that she's chosen to have with her at the bedside. We support whatever their needs might be through the labor experience, educate them along the way, evaluate their labor progress, monitor the wellbeing of the baby. And then we also facilitate a lot of the communication between the mother and the doctors. That's kind of a really important part, obviously.

But when the time comes for delivery, that's the most exciting part right there. We assist the doctor in managing the safety of the mother and the baby both. And then, following the delivery, we encourage bonding of the mother and their partner with the newborn. We teach them how to get started off right in this new world now that they have a family that's grown. We monitor the baby as they transition, always watching out for their temperature and their breathing, making sure that they're feeding successfully

And then we also support the mother and their partners as they navigate how to take care of this bundle of joy and get them set up hopefully for success for when they go home.

Deborah Howell (Host): Now, having a baby at Pullman Regional Hospital's BirthPlace is really a team approach. Could you give us a little bit of an overview of the people involved?

Kailub Whitman: Yes. It definitely takes a team. I would say no matter where a mom decides to have her baby, it definitely is a team event. But from BirthPlace, I would say the team begins with who the mother chooses for her support person. This is really important that she chooses someone that she trusts, someone that's going to be able to help her through her journey. Someone who can be her voice when she needs it. And someone who can be her sounding board for her decisions when she's not able to do that for her or her baby at the time of delivery. Just there's so many ups and downs through labor and delivery that sometimes you just need a person to just be able to speak for you once in a while.

But at Pullman Regional, we have a great team. We're here hoping to make this journey as safe as possible, starting with our amazing doctors. They're there obviously to lead the care, kind of lead where we're going and what we're doing. We have our great anesthesia group. They work very closely with the nurses and the doctors, obviously, in case the patients are wanting an epidural, or if they require some sort of surgical procedure along the way. Then, we have our nurses, obviously we're right there at the bedside through the journey assisting and educating, like we just talked about. We also have our CNAs that are there for support for the patient and for the staff. We have our lactation team there to help the moms guiding on breastfeeding, or the non-breastfeeding. We have so many layers to this team. There's so many different layers of people that are helping behind the scenes. The secretary that greets everybody, our health psych group, our social workers that help with the mental health and the wellbeing of our patients; the kitchen staff, that helps with the families to keep them energized for us because having a baby is a lot of work; and then, housekeeping, maintenance. I feel like Pullman Regional, we're just a really tight knit family and our whole team is really important in making everything, the entire stay for our patients, the whole group is what makes it Pullman Regional.

Deborah Howell (Host): Kailub, that is just lovely. Now, as you touched on, the birth of a baby is a very dynamic experience and plans sometimes change. What does this look like from your perspective?

Kailub Whitman: Yes. Like I said, having a baby can be an up, it can be a down, it can be an up, it's just all over the place. So the entire labor process, like you said, is very dynamic. The delivery portion, the postpartum portion can be at times. So mothers-to-be along with their support person, their partner, can try and prepare themselves as much as possible. And I really recommend childbirth education to be able to help with this, help at least familiarize yourself with the dynamics of the process. But there's not really any way that you're going to be able to prepare yourself a hundred percent. It's hard to be prepared for the emotions that might take over. It might be hard for you to figure out how much physical exertion your body will actually be required of you, and how much you will react to the fear if at any point you are faced with a poor situation. So those are all just a few examples of how much this can go up and down.

But from what things look like from my perspective, if things change on the different levels, I would say being able to have a discussion to alleviate worries and concerns. This is really important in my job. Being able to give my patients words of encouragement and education, if something is starting to change from what their birth plan might be, what they have already originally had laid out in their mind mentally, that alone can cause a lot of anxiety in patients. So being able to have that communication between the nurses taking care of them and a patient, is really important to me.

Other changes that may involve calling in for nurses that are going to need to be coming in for backup, calling in for doctors for their assistance, calling in for other staff members that need to maybe come in and jump in on the action for the safety of the mom and their babies. There may be some concerns with the mother's health. There may be some concerns with the baby's health, but we definitely want all hands on board. So making sure that as this is all happening, that we have the opportunity to walk them through what is happening in the midst of it, because their fears and their emotions are definitely going to start taking over. So even with the changes to their pre-plan journey, we want them to be able to always know how strong they are, how successful they're being and that they have a birth story that they're proud to share.

Deborah Howell (Host): I'm glad you said pre-planning cause that leads me to another question for you. Some expecting mothers plan to have a cesarean birth while others have to for medical reasons. How do you provide reassurance to an expecting mother when an emergency cesarean is required?

Kailub Whitman: That one can be really hard because the topic of a C-section can be very sensitive to some people.

But that dream of going into this perfect labor and delivery situation can kind of catch people off guard if something changes in that. So, I do feel like it's important for people to have an understanding of kind of how things can go if it's the right circumstance for a patient that might need to have a C-section.

So, as you mentioned, there are different reasons for different kinds of C-sections. So of course, if a C-section is deemed medically necessary prior to the labor process. It can be beneficial for families to have time to grieve that prior plan for the vaginal delivery, educate themselves on the change in the plan and better prepare themselves for the delivery and recovery. This time is not a luxury for everybody. Some C-sections are unplanned and vary in levels of urgency. The increased level of urgency bring more staff and increased chaos into a patient's room. And sometimes that makes the emotion soar and the fear rise a little bit more.

So in these kinds of situations, mothers and their partners need education, they need the reassurance, they need the staff and the doctors to tell them what's going on and to reassure them that everything is going to be okay or at least give them honest answers as to what's happening. Sometimes the doctors being there to give them more solidified answers than what the nurses are giving is comforting for them as well. But as the doctors are there explaining, and the nurses are actually doing, getting some of that kind of stuff together, that teamwork that we talked about before, that teamwork is so important in situations like this. It can be so overwhelming.

So knowing that we can educate them in these times when a C-section is not planned, but is required, is huge. So I would come out of this with reassuring, expecting mothers with an emergency, you're going to have a good team there that's going to be educating and reassuring and keeping the safety of you and your baby first and foremost.

Deborah Howell (Host): And Kailub, what do you want to expecting mothers to know about their upcoming birth experience at Pullman Regional Hospital?

Kailub Whitman: That we can't wait to be a part of your journey. We're here waiting to help you through every step of the way.

Deborah Howell (Host): I love that. Anything else you'd like to add.

Kailub Whitman: if You have questions, concerns, or anything like that, we're always open. Our phone is always available, give us a call, ask us some questions. Kind of get a feel if it's the right place for you, because we would love to see you in there.

Deborah Howell (Host): And could you give that phone number, Kailub?

Kailub Whitman: Our phone number at Birth Place is 509-336-7401.

Deborah Howell (Host): Well, Kailub, we so appreciate your time and everything you do to help our expecting mothers and their families through the birthing process. Thanks so much for being with us today.

Kailub Whitman: Yes, thank you for having me. And I hope this was helpful for all of those that are looking for a little bit more information on BirthPlace.

Deborah Howell (Host): Beautiful. And you can learn more about this subject, providers and services at Pullman Regional Hospital online at pullmanregional.org/patient-care/BirthPlace. This has been The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm your host, Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.