Fainting after previous birth

[Lisalee2]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this should be in the Homebirth forum or not, so feel free to move this thread if necessary.

I was curious as to others opinions as to why I would have fainted after my daughter's home birth. She's 6 yo now, so the birth details are a little foggy but here's basically what happened.

I was in the birth tub, and after dd was born, I was holding her and suddenly felt very light headed and fainted. Our midwife grabbed dd, and my husband pulled me out of the tub. I woke up pretty quickly but was still quite dizzy and then passed out again maybe 5 min. later.

My midwife didn't seem very worried, there was no talk of transferring me to a hospital or anything. I wasn't bleeding profusely. I'm just wondering if it was due to not eating or drinking enough during labor. Or possibly the water in the tub being too warm, etc.?

Has anyone else had this happen to them? We're thinking about having another baby and would do another home birth, I'm just trying to figure out what went wrong so I can prevent it from happening again.

After dd was born, my midwife asked me to take Floradix (If I remember correctly, it is an iron supplement)

Any ideas from experienced mamas and midwives? TIA!

[Lisalee2]

Bump

[SashaBear]

I don't know about homebirth, but I think its common. I felt faint after my vaginal in the hospital. No one had any major issues with it.

[Lisalee2]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's somewhat normal, but still scary for everyone involved. My dh was a bit worried since I actually passed out twice. Next time around, I'll try to eat/drink more. Low blood sugar or something like that could have had something to do with it also.

Thanks for replying!

[kltroy]

I think this is pretty common. I actually lost a fair bit of blood during my recent birth, and I didn't feel like standing long enough to take a shower until around 10 hours after the birth. I was pretty lightheaded/dizzy whenever I got up to pee for a while.

[lunita1]

I fainted after my first daughter's birth. I vomited throughout labor, and then also lost a fair amount of blood with my tear. I was just wiped out, and when I got up for the first time to go to the bathroom after the birth, I passed out.

It didn't happen again with my next two babies, FWIW.

[emaye_to_2]

Originally Posted by lunita1

I fainted after my first daughter's birth. I vomited throughout labor, and then also lost a fair amount of blood with my tear. I was just wiped out, and when I got up for the first time to go to the bathroom after the birth, I passed out.

It didn't happen again with my next two babies, FWIW.

This sounds really similar to my first birth experience too. I passed out in the bathroom after a relatively long, hard labor, some vomiting, no food intake and post-partum bleeding. My subsequent birth was nothing like it!

[Lisalee2]

Thank you everyone for your replies. It really eases my worries about it. I was really wondering if something was wrong with me for that to happen. Now I know I'm not alone.

[Girlprof]

I fainted after my first birth too. I did lose a fair amount of blood but this was quite awhile afterwards so I had certainly already had something to eat. FWIW, I have fainted two other times in my life, though decades earlier.

When I had my second baby, I never felt light headed. But, I was VERY happy to have a male former marine for my nurse. The first time around I had an itty bitty nurse who didn't catch me so I hit my head when I landed. Ice packs on my head and down below - I was quite a sight.