Hi, I'm Meris, and in this video, I'm going to be talking to you about the factors affecting labor
along with the fetal position and fetal station. I'm going to be following along using
our maternity flashcards. These are available on our website, leveluprn.com, if you want to
grab a set for yourself, but if you already have a set, I would invite you to follow along with me.
Okay, let's get started. So first up, we are talking about the factors affecting labor,
and you will see on the back of the card that we have a cool chicken hint here to help you remember
these different factors. We say there's three peas and a pod. So the three peas here are going to
be the passageway, the powers, and the passenger. So the passageway is just the birth canal, right?
It's about the anatomy. Is a patient's pelvis tilted? How is the cervix? That sort of the thing.
All of those anatomical considerations can change are a patient's ability to birth a baby vaginally
or can change what needs to happen during labor. Then we have the powers, and the powers refer to
the contractions. How strong are the contractions? How effectively are they affecting the cervix?
All of those things. Again, if we have ineffective change to the cervix, then we're not going to have
an adequate passageway and we're not going to be able to give birth, right? So when we talk
about the powers, we're talking about how the contractions are affecting the cervix.
And then you'll see here that for passenger we're talking about the fetus, and there's a whole lot
of information on here. I'll let you read it for yourself; we're going to talk about a bunch of it.
But there's one thing that I really want to pull out of here, and this is going to be the fetal
position and fetal station. We're going to talk about it with the next cards because we have nice
illustrations for you. But I do want to talk about them because it it gets a little bit confusing.
So when we talk about fetal position, we are using three letters to describe it. So this
is actually going to be this drawing right here. Sorry, I couldn't remember which side it was on.
This is the drawing that you'll see in the next card. I think it is beautiful, and I think that
it is one of the best illustrations that exist to talk about how the fetus is actually positioned.
So when we have these three letters, the first letter is either L or R, so it's saying left
or right, and then the middle is going to be saying what part of the baby are we talking about,
right? So we can be talking about occiput, meaning the back of the head. We can be talking about
mentum, meaning the chin. We could also have things like scapula, which we would say SC.
We could have sacrum, which would be just an S. So what part of the body are we talking about is
presenting in the pelvis. And then the last abbreviation in that three letters is going
to describe where it is. So this is going to be either anterior, posterior, or transverse.
So let me give you an example. If we say that the baby is LOA, that means that the baby
is positioned so that the occiput, the middle there, is left for the patient, for the mother,
and anterior. So if you look at the next card - and you can actually see this illustration,
and I'll bring it in close for you and hopefully it will focus here - If you see that,
you can see what I'm talking about, about how the baby is positioned. And in this instance here,
we are talking all about the occiput. So it gets a little bit confusing because we could
have mental presentation. We could have the scapula presenting. But for this illustration,
we're talking just about the occiput. So what is the optimal positioning for this fetus? Well, the
optimal is going to be LOA, left occiput anterior. That is what we would prefer to have a really
well-facilitated birth. So I remember this as LOA is okay. That's how I remembered it. It's
not on our card or anything, but that's kind of the easiest way to remember it. But if I had to
choose, then I would say ROA would be second best. What we don't want is a P at the end there. We
don't want the occiput, the baby's back of their head, to be facing posterior of mom, meaning
the back of the baby's head is facing mom's back, because this is that sunny side up delivery.
And with that sunny side up delivery, we can have a lot of pain, a lot of complications
there. So LOA is okay. That's going to be the best way for that baby to be born. And so, again,
I really want you to take the time to look at this illustration in-depth. I love this illustration
so much that I have it on my wall. I just think it is really, really good at sort of explaining
what all of these mean. Of course, only talking about the occiput presentation.
Now, lastly, we're going to talk about fetal station. So when we talk about station,
it basically just means how far has the head or presenting part descended into the pelvis. So
station zero means at the level of the ischial spines. Anything higher up than that is going
to have a negative number. Anything lower, like closer to the vaginal opening, is going to have
a positive number. You can remember this because plus four is on the floor. So if you can remember
plus four on the floor, then you can remember that the positive station means that the baby
is exiting closer to the exit of the pelvis. Now, here is a really nice illustration. Again,
I just think that the illustrations in this deck are beautiful and so helpful. So you can
see here that we have a baby in the pelvis and we're demonstrating where the baby is
and then what each station is. So currently this baby is at negative three station. That's
not really an optimal station for delivery. I'm not thinking this baby's coming out imminently,
right? Now. If I had plus three, I'm thinking, "This baby is about to enter the world." So
just important to remember, positive numbers mean closer to the exit of the pelvis, closer to being
in the vagina, right? So plus four on the floor. Okay. So let's test your knowledge. If
I said that you checked the patient and they were presenting ROP, what does that mean?
Next question, what is the optimal presentation for the fetus for a well-facilitated birth?
And last question, if I have a baby who is at the level of the ischial spines, what station
are they at? All right. I hope that review is helpful, and I really hope I get to see you in
the next one. Thanks so much and happy studying. I invite you to subscribe to our channel and share
a link with your classmates and friends in nursing school. If you found value in this video, be sure
and hit the like button, and leave a comment and let us know what you found particularly helpful.