When do I actually go to the hospital?

I get asked that question all of the time.

What do contractions actually feel like?

How will I actually know if they're real contractions?

All these types of questions I'm trying to answer.

And what you're gonna find is that these keep building on each other, right?

And because ultimately if you know what contractions are and you start to recognize 'em, then you're gonna know, okay, these are real.

It's time to go to the hospital, and then you're gonna get to OB triage and you're gonna go, okay, what happens in OB triage?

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The truth is.

I can be having the best time being a mom one minute, and then the next, I'm questioning all my life choices.

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This is the lo and behold podcast.

We have just had a weekend of absolutely ridiculous weather and you're probably going, okay, why are you talking about the weather?

Right?

But you guys know in the birth space, a lot of times the weather.

Whether or not you believe this, I guess, can correlate with going into labor or weird things happening.

You know, the myths about Full Moon and then babies come or Snowstorm and then babies come, which I talk about in my third birth story, so you can listen to that as well.

I'm someone who recognizes that these things are myths and aren't always proven to be true in evidence, but I've also someone who's worked on an OB floor and weird things happen when the weather is weird, we just had a weekend here in Colorado that.

Was one of those weekends, and it's just been making me think of all the, the prs out there right now wondering, am I going into labor?

Do I wanna go into labor?

Did you just go into labor?

Because basically what we had is a gorgeous day of sun, and my kids were outside and they were in their swimsuits and they were playing with the hosts.

And the very next morning, we're talking less than 12 hours later from that.

Swimsuits and hose in the backyard moment.

It was snowing.

It was like in the twenties, 20 degrees Fahrenheit for you know, my American listeners.

And the weather had totally flipped in, in hours I just couldn't help but think like, I wonder what this did to the labor units.

I wonder how many people went into OB triage and possibly got sent home.

So we're gonna talk about that today, and this really is.

And not necessarily a continuation of an episode series I've been doing, but I've just been trying to answer some of these questions, these big questions that we have when we're pregnant about kind of this, not procedural stuff, but this process stuff.

Like when do I actually go to the hospital?

I get asked that question all of the time.

What do contractions actually feel like?

How will I actually know if they're real contractions?

All these types of questions I'm trying to answer.

And what you're gonna find, especially if you go back and you listen to some of these episodes where we've already addressed some of this.

Is that these keep building on each other, right?

And because ultimately if you know what contractions are and you start to recognize 'em, then you're gonna know, okay, these are real.

It's time to go to the hospital.

And then you're gonna get to OB triage, and you're gonna go, okay, what happens in OB triage?

Should I stay?

Should I go?

Will they send me home?

Will they keep me?

Is this real?

And we just keep running into these questions that all of us have.

But ultimately, until we've experienced birth or maybe multiple births, so we have these different experiences happen throughout them.

We don't know the answer to these questions, so we're gonna answer one of those questions today.

Essentially that idea of.

What happens in OB triage?

What happens when that snowstorm hits all like unexpectedly and then you find yourself contracting or whatever, and you head into triage?

What happens?

then will they send you home?

' cause that's such a huge part of this conversation, and for some people it's something that they really don't want.

I know I just mentioned kind of other episodes that kind of lead into this one.

So I will tell you episode 10 is all about the emotional signposts of labor, and I talk about that topic a lot when I am teaching you guys about this awareness and knowledge of your body and labor and when it is or isn't, right.

You know, to go in or what to listen to.

So that's a really good episode as you're prepping and thinking, episode 10, emotional signposts of labor.

then episode 37 and 38, I did those two back to back.

And the first one addresses the types of contractions, kind of what contractions feel like, gives you some education on the difference between, there's actually four types, so you'll know those, and that's gonna help you make the decision that we cover in episode 38, which is the, when do I go to the hospital?

You know, is this real?

Is this something to pay attention to?

Is this something you care about?

And is it time?

And so all of those kind of.

Not necessarily lay a foundation for this episode.

You can obviously listen to this one if you haven't listened to those and it's gonna be valuable for you.

But they definitely are just going to kind of bulk up your education so you feel really confident and really comfortable in this kind of third trimester end of pregnancy point where all these questions are running through your mind and it's really hard to know.

Either A, what's coming next, or B, what's actually going on right now.

Okay, so when it comes to OB triage, I think the first thing you've gotta talk about is this idea of why would you go into triage?

And I will say right up front, this is not gonna be a comprehensive, like all inclusive list because there's a lot of reasons that you might go into triage.

And what I want you to hear from me the most is if you, for any reason.

Think that you need to go into the OB unit and have something checked, whether it be for you or baby or you're worried, don't ignore that intuition.

You can call your provider certainly, or you can head right in.

And you know, that makes me kind of wanna back up and just in case you're not clear what an OB triage is, it's essentially like where we're gonna put you before we admit you.

So you might end up having appointments in triage because you need a, like a heart rate check, an NST, your OB appointment, they might send you over there because they want to do an additional test after something that's happened in the prenatal appointment.

There's different reasons, but essentially it's like a holding space.

And sometimes we admit you, sometimes we don't.

Sometimes we take care of you and do you know, some sort of appointment where we go through the things we have to, and then we send you home, and that's.

Known that that's how we're gonna do it.

so it's kind of where you go before you're officially checked in.

Sometimes you can bypass OB triage.

It depends on the situation, what's going on, how pregnant you are, what the goal is for your care.

But often you're gonna land there first.

So when I say OB triage in this idea of when to go in that I want you thinking through.

And then what will happen once you get there, this is what I'm talking about, is that kind of preemptive holding space before it's like, we're gonna keep you, or actually no, we're gonna send you home.

So reasons that you might go in.

I'm sure that kind of makes you think, okay.

Fetal movement's obviously a big one, right?

So decreased fetal movement.

Obviously after 26 to 28 weeks or so, we're all supposed to be paying attention to this and if we have concerns coming up, that's a point.

Where people might end up going into OB triage and saying, Hey, you know, I'm a little bit worried baby hasn't been moving the way that I think they should or has they normally do.

So that's a really common reason to ob go into OB triage.

Vaginal bleeding is another big one.

There's lots of causes of bleeding in pregnancy.

Some are totally benign, some are not.

Or they're indicative of something else.

Right.

And so that's a reason to go in or to call, and then they'll send you in.

And these, that bleeding specifically as well as some of these other ones, it can be what's gonna happen, what should come next.

That can be dependent on how far along in your pregnancy you are as well.

But regardless, you're often, like we, I'll say at my hospital, we typically took anyone who was over about 14 or 15 weeks.

They were our patient immediately, as opposed to going or routing through the ER first.

So I'm not sure exactly what it'll be like where you're getting care and where you're going for both any triage type stuff you might need or your actual birth.

But typically you're going to be here in this triage space.

So for bleeding, for any kind of reason, especially in that like second and third trimester.

That likely would be a reason that you could end up in triage before they decide what to do next.

Contractions, labor check.

That's a big one.

That's really the one we're gonna circle back to and circle around is as we move on in this episode.

'cause that's what I really wanna help you with is answering that question of your term.

It's okay if you're going into labor right now, so what's going on?

What's gonna happen?

UTIs, yeast infections, symptoms of those pregnancy related itchiness or cholestasis, if you've heard that, that can be a reason people are being sent in or coming in.

Leaking of fluid.

Certainly if you think your water's broken, whether that be, you know, 32 weeks or 39, OB triage is likely where you're going to come in, hypertension issues, that's high blood pressure, preeclampsia, you know, conversations you could end up in, triage, betamethasone shots for baby.

There's just so many reasons you can end up in triage.

So again, that's not an all inclusive list, but there are just a lot of of reasons you might.

Land there.

Of course, preterm labor is another big one as well.

So particularly if it's before 37 weeks, 36 weeks, if we're in those earlier weeks of pregnancy, where typically the hope is, hey, this baby can stay in a little longer.

That's what we'd want.

That's gonna be another big reason that someone may end up in OB triage.

Okay.

Again, not all inclusive, but those are some of the reasons that you might land in this space and be getting that triage care.

Okay.

If you are over 37 weeks, that's what I really kind of wanna focus on for the rest of this.

The triage experience in general will often look really similar, but I mentioned I wanna address this more full term conversation because care for bleeding at 28 weeks or care for preterm labor at 32 weeks, those are all gonna look really different.

So I wanna speak really to that.

Experience of being, you know, 38 weeks in five days, and maybe you think your water's broken, or a labor check, that type of scenario where you're thinking, should I go in?

Is it time will they send me home?

Okay, so let's assume all else is quote unquote, normal things are going well.

You're laboring at home, or you're unsure about something going on at home related to labor.

And so you're gonna head in and that's kind of the mindset that I wanna get you in and then speak to.

So when you get into OB triage for one of these.

Labor checks and we're gonna answer again that question of what's happening, just so you guys know.

then will they send you home?

And what does that all look like?

I found that for a lot of us, the first time that we have been patients in a hospital, been the person receiving care is when we're having babies, right?

And so.

It's very possible this triage check as you go into labor could be one of your very first, if not the first experiences of saying, Hey, I'm like, I'm a patient, I need care.

Here's what's going on, kind of experiencing what comes next.

And so it feels a little bit like a void sometimes of.

You've never done this before, you might feel a little bit worried because are you in labor?

Is everything okay?

Like some of that normal anxiety that can just come up at this point.

then you don't really know what comes next.

Why are they putting you in this little holding space?

Why aren't they keeping you, you know, all of that stuff.

So that's what we're addressing here.

This, uh, in this part, initially what's gonna happen is.

There's gonna be a triage nurse or whoever is assigned to care for you.

And typically, I feel like the question they're answering, the question I'm answering if I'm the triage nurse is this idea of, is it okay to have this baby today or are we thinking it needs to stay inside?

So that's kind of the first thing.

And I know I told you, I want you to put yourself in the, in the term mindset.

You're 37, 38, 39 weeks pregnant.

So the answer to that as a triage nurse is gonna be, okay, this is just a labor check or, or not a wellness check, but this baby could be born.

If this is real labor, we're good with that.

We're fine with that.

I'll call the doc and we'll let 'em know and we'll go from there.

So that's a question that I think is being ash in triaged.

And so it's good to tuck in your brain and just think like, okay, that's the decision that they're, they're kind of processing something that they're working through, a decision that they're making when they're looking at me and looking at my babe and kind of deciding, yes, one, if we need to admit you, but also is this a labor that is going to continue or is this one that we would need to stop for any reason, which again, is typically gonna happen before this full turn point.

All right, so we're assuming we're full term.

We're assuming that the answer to that question as the nurse or care team maybe is thinking about that idea is, yeah, we can have this baby.

Let's figure out what's going on.

So what are, what happens next?

Often they ask you to get into some sort of gown to assess you.

Not always.

And you can very easily say, no thanks, unless you're really feeling it right.

And you're like, I know that you're admitting me.

I wanna have what I have on for labor.

Maybe you've already worn it into the hospital.

So that conversation really about what to wear.

You can put on what they ask.

You can keep what you have on, not a big deal, but sometimes that conversation of clothing might come up.

then they usually are gonna ask you to pee in a cup.

So usually it's.

Here's a gown.

If you wanna change, here's a cup.

Go pee in a cup.

Go to the bathroom.

Once you come back out, we'll finish from there.

It's like a very simple vitals, head to toe assessment of you.

A lot of q and a of how you're doing.

Common, common questions.

Are you contracting?

When did it start?

What's that pattern like?

Is baby moving normally?

Have things changed?

Like kind of that verbal assessment of baby and what you've been aware of?

Are you having any bleeding?

That's almost always, probably always going to get asked Headaches, vision changes, any swelling that you're noticing that's related often to hypertensive issues.

So they have this little rundown of these kind of classic questions that they're asking.

And even if you've done a pre-admit appointment and they have that on file.

You're still going to be asked some really common questions that are quick little indicators or pulse points of things that could be going on.

Like I mentioned, you know, headaches and vision changes.

If you're saying, yeah, actually I'm seeing spots everywhere.

I've had a headache for a couple days.

Like they're going to be thinking, oh, hypertensive issues.

I need to pay attention to that.

This isn't just a quote unquote.

Again, normal assessment.

Okay.

so those questions about, you know, bleeding and movement, your contraction pattern, what's been going on, concerns you have, those are gonna get asked each time you go in if you do go in multiple times.

So it's great to have a pre admit appointment done.

If you've done that.

It's great to have everything really caught up in your files, but they're still going to do this full head to toe assessment, and that's going to include these types of questions.

All right?

The other thing that triage appointments include is.

Fetal monitoring, I will typically, this is going to be an NST, which is a non-stress test, what that means is it's at least 20 minutes of monitoring where it's that contraction monitor on you and the fetal heart rate monitor on you, we're looking for your contraction pattern.

Certainly, particularly if you come in and you're saying, Hey, I'm in labor, and then the fetal heart rate and how those.

Two things are working together, if you will.

So the idea of, hey, when you are having contractions, how's the baby look?

Are they responsive?

Are they showing activity?

There's different things that nurses are looking for.

To, to look for something called like a reactive NST, which is a indicator of wellbeing for your baby.

You know, those are like kind of not sciencey words, but those are really specific words for different things the nurse is looking for.

But it's essentially, it's this idea of like.

This contraction pattern looks like this.

Okay, great.

And baby looks like this.

Okay, great.

And that's kind of what an NST encompasses.

It has to be 20 minutes long plus.

So it could be more, if baby doesn't look immediately perfect in the first 10 minutes, that's not something to worry about.

There's signs that things don't look great in there, and then sometimes we're just waiting for baby to perk up because they're going through.

Sleep cycles, so it's all right if immediately the nurse isn't saying, oh, your baby's jumping around like crazy.

Like that doesn't have to be an expectation.

They're looking for things over time, so baby has time to get through a sleep cycle or wake up or whatever and respond to what is going on, particularly if you are having lots of contraction.

And what that looks like.

In regards to monitoring, I'll just throw this in there.

If you are in rip rowing labor, yes, they wanna monitor you.

Yes.

You can still even hear in triage, ask for telemetry monitoring.

You can stand at the bedside or stand, you know, near the monitor in the room, but don't feel like you have to go into the bed while they get this monitoring strip.

But I do want you to know that that 20 minute NST or potentially more if they're waiting for babe to wake up or something, is basically required.

So that's not necessarily a monitoring you can deny.

Okay.

One more caveat on that though.

My third and fourth baby, my fourth baby, there was no NST when I got admitted because I had the baby in Los.

Than 20 minutes.

So that's more of a situation.

If you're in that situation, they're likely not even going to be doing that.

They're just gonna be helping you have your baby.

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Okay, let's get you back to the episode.

But if you go in and, and let's say we come to find out your four to five centimeters and they decide to keep you, or whatever that NST is.

Very, very, very, very likely going to be a part of this triage process, and it will be used to help also make decisions about what's going on, how you're doing in regards to the contraction thing as well.

Since we're talking about contraction pattern and fetal heart rate.

I wanna circle back that idea of emotional signpost.

And just that those can be really a great indicator of where you are at in your labor.

And so that RN is assessing these things as well.

So yes, we might see a contraction pattern that's every four to five minutes you're having a contraction, but they're also, they're watching you.

What are your emotions look like?

How are you dealing with contractions?

How are you breathing through them?

Are you talking, are you not?

Are you struggling to make choices?

There's all these things.

Within the emotional signposts of labor and the stages of labor.

those things really help the care team also decide, you know, what's going on here in this body right now, and ultimately, is this person a keeper?

That's what I always like to say.

So the team will be assessing that as well, though that.

Typically not gonna be in the form of yes and no questions, but just them and their intuition as providers and their awareness as providers of paying attention to your behavior too.

So there's this quantifiable stuff like this fetal heart rate that we talked about, like these contraction patterns that I'm talking about.

But there's also you and your behavior and all of that is part of this decision making process.

If it is needed, there are additional things that might come up in triage as well.

So we've gone through this idea of a quick admit, a head to toe assessment, get your fetal monitoring, ask those questions about how you two are doing.

That's like the bulk of a very basic triage appointment.

Some additional stuff that might come up or might be needed is.

A testing for fluid leaking.

So if you're coming in saying, I'm contracting it, I think my water's broken, well, then there's things that they can do in triage to test for that.

Nitrozine paper, Fe AmniSure.

There's these different tests that they might use to confirm whether or not your water's broken.

And typically, in most all hospitals here in the US, especially, if your water's broken, then that immediately means you're that keeper that I'm talking about.

Oh, you are in labor, your water's broken, you're here to stay.

If your water weren't broken, then that.

This conversation switches back to, you know, is this true labor?

Should we be keeping this person and have, are we gonna have this baby, you know, in the next 12 to 24 hours?

Whatever could be longer.

But that decision then switches back to that.

There are other tests and imaging and more extensive ultrasounds, things that can be done in triage as well for a lot of those other things that I mentioned in that list of why you might go to triage.

But again, we're kind of focusing here on this, this.

Labor check triage appointment and what that looks like.

So yes, there's lots of other things that could happen in triage, but in this specific scenario, we're not going to address this.

So if you go in for a different reason or if you go in at an earlier point in your pregnancy, or if there are other concerns, there's still a lot that they could do or try or look into without actually needing to admit you or still using the information they get from that other staff to make the decision to admit you or not.

So we're gonna jump past.

The big group of all those other things that also could happen just continue on this idea of are you a keeper or not?

And that's what they're deciding.

So of course you're probably going, what about a cervical exam?

Because that is the other thing that is very frequently used in triage to help make the decision of whether or not you are going to have this baby and you should stay in this hospital.

And they should keep you.

Now, I think there are people who very much do not want any cervical exams then find that in triage.

That is a big thing.

Like, okay, we're gonna go ahead and check your cervix.

That's part of our decision making process.

Sometimes this can be denied and I know.

I know a lot of people hear that and they go, I can deny anything at any time.

That's, that's true.

What I want you to hear is this laying out of the triage process and what is going on here.

So yes, you can deny cervical exams at any time, especially if that's your preference right now and you're thinking, I do not want any, if that is where you're at, it's very likely that that fetal monitoring your emotional signposts, maybe your bags of waters, bro, bag of waters are broken.

All of that other stuff is going to need to be telling the team very obviously.

I am in labor.

You do not need to check me.

I am going to have this baby.

You do not wanna send me home.

Okay?

So there are these other ways.

Absolutely.

We can tell you are in labor, and I have seen TikTok videos and Instagram reels very clear of people who are in labor and you do not need to check their cervix in triage.

Maybe you don't even need to put them in triage, but that's another conversation.

And then there are other times where someone comes in and maybe it's a first baby and they've been contracting for a few hours.

And it seems, yes, like you are having contractions, but it doesn't seem like you are an active laborer transition yet.

And so that cervical exam becomes a tool for them to kind of.

Figure out is progress being made?

Is the cervix changing?

Because part of real labor, and you will hear that in the episode 37 that I mentioned about contractions, is about the cervix changing with contractions.

So true labor contractions also change your cervix.

So there are contractions that don't change your cervix, which means those are contractions that will not.

Make you a keeper, forage.

So again, episode 37, if you wanna listen to that one or pause here, listen and then come back.

And so that cervical exam becomes part of this decision making process of is this real labor and how are things changing over time?

One thing I think that's really nice to know about the cervical exam is when in the early years of both being a student and working as a nurse, four centimeters was really this.

Active labor barometer.

And so if you were four, you were there, you were in active labor, we were always gonna keep you.

And in the years as I was working, we kind of flipped more to six centimeters being more of a better indicator in triage of you being an active labor and more likely to be a keeper.

So he used to say like six is the new four.

And had this mentality of, hey, it's not just about reaching four centimeters, what else is going on?

the reason we have that, the reason that that's.

Exists and that's out there is because keeping you early when you really don't need to be there yet can lead to more intervention.

And so if the goal, like our hospital had this whole team to help reduce primary C-section rates, if the goal is to reduce C-section rates or probably even staffing ratios and those things being more efficient, you know, those decisions are probably part of it as well.

But this idea that.

Admitting you too early doesn't really benefit anyone, right?

And so we don't wanna admit people simply based on this quantifiable four centimeter number, but also this whole picture of what's going on.

And what we were often finding is that admitting someone just because they were four centimeters wasn't always the right choice.

That that didn't always indicate true active labor.

Let's keep you here.

Let's keep things going.

Let's let you have this baby.

And that sometimes it was actually leading to sh shoot.

This labor is actually slowing down.

This wasn't true active labor yet.

then possibly then the conversation is, maybe we should have some Pitocin.

Maybe we should break the bag of water.

Some of those intervention chain steps that you might be familiar with would be introduced.

And really it was often simply because, ooh, maybe we just kept you a little too early.

And it wasn't actually quite time.

But once you were there and it felt like we're not sending you home.

'cause often hospitals don't just willy-nilly send you home, although patients could sometimes choose to go home.

And so that possible chain of interventions could be.

Rolling.

Right?

If again, if we were had kept you too early and really maybe should not have, so that's kind of the idea.

Or some of the thought behind that old idea of six is the new four or this idea of, I really, we really want you to, to prove it and triage so we don't keep you too early.

Now, of course, the reverse of that for a lot of you is if you didn't keep me and I was four centimeters, I would've had my baby half an hour later.

Right?

And so that goes back to this idea of.

Judging the holistic picture, what's your behavior like?

What has changed over time?

If the cervix is being checked, like has that changed from one check to another?

And being able to put all of that together to make this decision as the triage nurse and then certainly the midwife or the OB or who, whoever you're calling, or potentially if they're coming in and seeing this patient as well.

I just mentioned this idea of.

The cervix being checked more than once in triage, and that's the last thing I wanna speak to on these cervical checks for triage.

There were many times where we would check the cervix in triage and we were like, Ooh, I just, I am, I'm just not sure.

Based on everything we now know and have assessed if we should keep you or not.

And so what we often would do is say, why don't you walk around the unit for 60 minutes or 90 minutes?

And so the patient would get a birth ball and they would walk around.

They would typically weren't on the monitors 'cause there would not be an indication for that at that point.

we would let them walk around and kind of just labor in the hospital or near the triage unit, you know, so they'd stay on the labor unit and they would just go around and around and around or sit in the birth ball, do whatever, but try to try to labor right and keep things going.

If, if they were.

And then we would say, Hey, we're going to check your cervix again after that see if we've noticed any change.

If there's any , indication that these contractions that you're having are those cervix changing contractions, which again, more indicative of true labor in real contractions.

So sometimes the first cervical exam, particularly if you are not otherwise showing us.

Yes, I'm definitely in labor.

Keep me, keep me, keep me.

That first exam then becomes a benchmark and they check you again, you know, an hour or two later and decide to keep you or not based on whether or not there's change, have things slowed down, there's been no change.

Let's go ahead and send you home.

So that is kind of what OB triage might look like for you and how the NST and the cervical exam all can kind of play a role in this decision of whether or not.

They're gonna keep you or gonna say, Hey, why don't you go back, go back home, come home when they're a little bit closer together, where they feel stronger if something changes.

then we'll see if that's really the time.

So when it comes to that question of are they going to send me home, the answer is, I don't know.

It really does depend on not only are you in labor.

But where are you at in your labor?

Because early labor, two centimeter labor, you might have hours before, you know, they think, yeah, come back in then.

And then you'll probably be a keeper if you're in more active labor or later labor.

If you have a history of fast labors, if we're talking about second, third, fourth babies, that's all gonna play a role in the conversation.

so that idea of will they send me home is really so specific.

To your history, to what your body is doing, certainly to your intuitions, and then your care providers are really looking at all of the things they assess during this triage appointment and putting that all together to go, they're using this skill, right these year, this years of skill and knowledge about labor process and you and what could happen to decide, you know what?

I think it's better for this patient to labor somewhere else for a while before we keep them.

Or I think this patient's gonna have a baby, or it'd be better for them to stay here for the rest.

To their labor.

And so that's kind of the conversation that they, they're having in their head and out loud with you with each other and trying to answer that question of whether or not they should send, send you home or keep you.

Ultimately would want you to hear when it comes to arbitrage is that this is going back to this idea of listening to your intuitions, never hesitating to go in, recognizing that this is a resource for you guys that exists and is staffed specifically for this reason.

Like every day we got to the unit and the charge nurse said.

So and so, you're the triage nurse today, and they were for labor checks, breaking the water checks, like any of that stuff that came in, any scheduled stuff or an NST or quick little things.

They were.

The nurse to take care of people like you who were not sure if you were in labor or not.

So there is no shame or no issue in going into triage and getting sent home.

So listening to your intuitions about that, you can always call your provider and they too might say, why don't you head into triage?

Let them assess you.

They'll call me and we'll figure out what's going on.

Because a lot of times if your provider is.

In clinic or in office or seeing appointments, that's gonna be the conversation, particularly during daytime hours too of head in, let them do a quick assessment on you, see what's going on.

Maybe I'll pop over and say hi during lunch.

You know, something like that.

then that's how you guys are going to answer the question of, Hey, am I actually in labor or not?

So don't feel bad utilizing the triage resource.

Don't feel bad if they send you home and certainly don't feel bad when you go.

Back in six hours later, or 12 or 18 or three days, and it is time for you to stay.

I mean, that's the goal, right?

Is that eventually at the right time, it's time for you to stay and to have that baby.

The last thing I would say is I would.

Love for you to not feel like triage is an emergency or something to be scared of that.

It's really, most often it's a checkpoint, it's a touchpoint.

I think sometimes there's this feeling of like, why am I in here?

Is everything okay?

And I, and I get that, I've been in that spot four times.

And so you do want that assurance that everything's okay, but I also want you to just see it as a step in the process.

So if you're having hospital birth, it's very likely you're gonna spend a little time in that room or in that space, and then you're gonna end up in your room to have your baby.

So.

Try to release maybe some of the fear or the unknown.

Hopefully this helps with that as well.

Just knowing, Hey, what are we doing?

What are we doing in this room?

then we can transfer, you know, that piece that we now have of, Hey, this is a step in the process.

Totally normal.

I knew we'd end up here.

Maybe you're annoyed about it like I was with some of my kids, so you can listen to my first stories for that.

But just knowing that this part of the process and so it doesn't shock you or feel scary again, you guys, those other episodes, episode 10, emotional Signposts, episode 37, types of Contractions.

I know I referenced some of that.

then episode 38, when to Go to the hospital.

Those are all.

Really significant and kind of integral parts of this conversation, so I would encourage you to listen to those as well.

Particularly if you're in, you know, this third trimester of pregnancy and you're starting to wonder what is going to happen with all of this stuff and how it looks like when things actually get rolling.

Thank you so much for listening to the Lo and Behold podcast.

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