Editing Maternal and Newborn Nursing – RN Practice Questions (section)

==Question 11==
A client at 37 weeks' gestation with preeclampsia begins to have a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Which nursing action is the priority?
# Insert a padded tongue blade to protect the airway.
# Turn the client to her side and ensure suction and oxygen are available.
# Prepare for immediate cesarean birth.
# Administer a magnesium sulfate bolus.

'''Answer:''' 2 (B). Turn the client to her side and ensure suction and oxygen are available.

''Rationale:'' During an eclamptic seizure the priority is maternal airway protection and preventing aspiration and injury; side-lying positioning uses gravity to keep secretions out of the airway and also improves uteroplacental perfusion by relieving vena cava compression. Nothing is ever inserted into the mouth of a seizing patient (option 1), which can cause dental, oral, and airway injury. Option 4 is the correct pharmacologic treatment and follows once the client is protected. Option 3 is premature; the client is stabilized first, because delivering an unstable, hypoxic, acidotic mother worsens outcomes for both patients.