Listen to what your body is telling you!

My most recent placement was a women's health placement which meant I was lucky enough to view a birth. This was an experience I was very excited about from the beginning of the placement and each day I would journey up to labour and birthing area to write down my pager number and hope to hear from them during the day. After missing a couple of births by a minute or two, when sent a page asking me to come to the birthing suite I raced down in order to not miss this experience again. I was introduced to the couple in the room by the midwife and was asked to stand or sit somewhere in the room where I could see what was going on but wouldn't be in the way. The patient had had an epidural and was pushing with the help of the midwife who was giving her any sensory feedback she could via pressure on the perineum. After racing to get to the room I had suddenly stopped and began to feel a little dizzy but I was so determined not to miss the birth that I thought I coulkd overcome this by concentrating on my breathing and trying to encourage venous return with ankle pumps and toe wiggling. Unfortunately none of this worked and before I knew it I found myself lying on the floor with a very sore head and an unfamiliar voice talking to me trying to wake me up. Yes...that's right, embarrassignly I had passed out in a room while a poor woman was going through arguably the most pain she would ever have to endure. I felt terrible for causing such a fuss on a day that was so important for this couple and couldn't stand the fact that between contractions she was asking me how my head was feeling!
There are many situations that may be similar to this that we come across as students and further down the line in our career where we are confronted with images or situations which make us feel a little unwell. I learnt from this situation it is important to listen to what your body is saying rather than pushing through the symptoms for selfish reasons, such as furthering our knowledge. More opportunities will arise and this is important to keep in mind when assessing how far you are willing to go to experience something amazing such as viewing a birth or a surgery.