Nursing Interventions:
- Provide emotional support to calm mother
- Stay with the mother
- Encourage the mother to pant between contractions
- Prepare for rupturing membranes when the head crowns
- Do not try to keep fetus from being delivered
Interventions if Delivery is Necessary:
- Apply gentle pressure to fetal head upward toward the vagina to prevent damage to the fetal head and vaginal lacerations
- Support infant's body during delivery
- Deliver the infant between contractions and check for the cord around the neck
- Use restitution to deliver the posterior shoulder
- Use gentle downward pressure to move the anterior shoulder under the pubic symphysis
- Clear the infant's mouth
- Dry and cover the infant to keep the body warm
- Let the placenta separate naturally
- Place the infant on the mother's abdomen or breast to induce uterine contractions
