Meconium in waters with SCHEDULED c-section

[bubbamummy]

I got to take a peek at my hospital notes recently and discovered that during my 'scheduled c-section' at 39 weeks exactly due to breech with double nuchal cord they had written that there was meconium in the water. Why would this have happened during a scheduled section? I always thought it was a product of long, stressful labors?! My DD didnt even experience any labor...anyone have any ideas?

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

My guess is that the cord being around her neck was stressing to her even without labor. Some babies pass meconium without being in distress as well.

[mwherbs]

did they baby have any problems from the Meconium? because it could just be that the c-section was stress enough- or it could be physical pressure- the thing is that even though the baby doesn't have to traverse the pelvis completely if the bottom was enguaged then they would have had to pull the baby out of the pelvis which would be below the cut basically grabbing the baby some where around the middle through the incision and pulling the bottom up once the bottom is out they would have to do similar manuvers as a vaginal breech birth - like keep the arms from moving up by the head and keeping the head flexed so there isn't any damage to the neck- so any of this could have caused the baby to pass mec- I have seen lots of babies pass mec as they are exiting -- I think that the cord wrap was actually a good thing and probably prevented any prolapse-
if the baby had inhaled the mec then the stress was from before hand

[savithny]

If meconium was only the product of long, stressful labors, then it would never be the case that someone's water broke at the beginning of labor and was mec-stained.

But it *is* the case that sometimes when your water breaks, even before labor, or during a non-stressful labor, you find it is mec stained or even full of thick mec.

My first was born at 40 weeks *exactly*, so was not overdue, and had mec-stained waters, and I had a short, easy labor. The midwife, looking at how his fingernails were stained greenish, figured that he'd passed a little mec at some point several weeks before. Maybe he got himself into trouble tangling in his cord, maybe something else happened, maybe he just did it because he did it -- we don't really know!

[Sudonk]

Mec can be a sign of distress in the weeks leading up to the birth, rather than during the birth itself. That's why it's imporant for moms to realize that seeing some staining means the baby should be checked to see how they're doing. It doesn't mean the baby IS in distress or danger at that moment, so it's not a reason to panic. It just means the baby's well-being should be assessed.

In your case, it is logical that the baby may have been trying to flip to vertex in prior weeks and got a little worked up because the double nuchal cord was inhibiting the move. Or it could be something completely unrelated to all of that, and we'll just never know.