1981: 1st day training in labor & delivery

I had been on the Maternity Unit less than a year.(1981) During which time I trained in Post Partum, and Nursery. I also became involved with the Parenting classes and started the unit's "Koffee Klatch" for new moms. (We didn't serve coffee..lots of cookies though.) At any rate, I was chomping @ the bit to learn to be a labor nurse! I knew that was where I wanted to be.
Finally, my day came! I was training with the charge nurse of L & D. She introduced me to the patient, taught me the basics of electronic fetal monitoring, and vaginal exams.(I'll cover this on another posting) Laura(not her real name) said our patient was complete (10 centimeters)....so off to the delivery room we went. Since I had "caught babies" before, that was my assignment...the baby. The doctor arrived, told the patient to push again and voila- her little girl was born! I had the baby under the radiant warmer, assessing her for Apgar scoring while drying her off. She was pink, screaming like crazy and looked great! (Apgar 9)Then I heard the doctor tell the patient..."here comes the placenta, just give me another big push." The next thing I heard him say, OK almost SCREAM, "That's not the PLACENTA, that's another BABY!" Time stood still! WHAAAT! I picked up the phone and said rather loudly "Help! we've got another baby!" Talk about exciting! All went well, until the doctor said there's a 3rd Baby!..... Just kidding! :)