My second day ( I do 2 a week )  was wonderful .... i saw what I was hoping to see the first day ....... nurse-midwifes working independently and calling in docs when they felt it necessary ... we had a mom 8 days post partum with fever on and off since deliver .... they had been treating it as mastitis ( inflamed breasts ) with massage ... acupuncture and help to express the milk ... no meds ........ all of the above was administered by nurses only ... during the night mom had pain in her uterus ... normal lochia ( sp?) but the midwife ordered a blood test to determine infection levels ... mom had 68 CRP ( normal <5 )... then the midwife called in the doc and had antibiotics prescribed ( took doc all of 5 min ... quick feel over belly and rapport from midwife .... doc then walked out of the ward ).... midwife inserted IV .... injected one antibiotic and set a drip with the other ..... continued support care of mom .... helping her express milk and encouraging her to nurse ... mom was too tired to nurse so baby was fed mom’s expressed milk and placed in cot so mom could watch baby ..... mom was given LOTS of encouragement and praise about milk production.... 160 ml at one go is impressive considering her fever and health state ...... I felt that the diagnosis and treatment of this mother was performed by the midwife with the docs assistance .......

I do not feel that midwifes are PAs and was severely disappointed with my first day ... however I was following only the doc´s rounds that day and I got a inaccurate picture ... thank heavens ... I found out now that doc rounds take 1 hour a day and the rest of the time midwifes worked freely .... wonderful

I was very, very pleased with this day and believe it was more representative of the work performed by the midwifes .... that I assisted the midwife with the IV and was given the honour of feeding the baby didn’t make it any worse ...:-)....