Real Stories of Handling Emergencies

[klemomma]

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, don't really know why, but here goes.

My third baby was a UC. My fourth baby was a birth center birth - for reasons related to other personal circumstances, not for what I am discussing here.

I know that the basic philosophy behind UC for many mamas, including myself, is that when you UC, you do not hand your care over to a provider, intentionally or unintentionally, who can never know your body like you do. You know and accept that you are responsible for managing your own birth. The idea is that you will listen to your own body and your baby to determine your health, well being and needs.

This is not to say, and I haven't ever heard anyone around here say, that this will prevent an emergency. I think many of us feel that certain issues are less likely to arise without interference in the birth process, but at the same time accept that true emergencies do happen.

Again, the idea here is that you will be listening to your body and baby and will know when you need to seek help.

I have been wondering, however, whether this is true in reality or just in theory.

I am interested in hearing any UC mama's story about a birth that did encounter an emergency and how it was handled. Cord prolapse, placental abruption, severe hemorrhage, shoulder distocia, a baby born with defects requiring immediate medical attention, or even an unexpected breech (which I know may or may not be considered an emergency, depending on circumstances / perspective, etc.).

If you encountered any of this in a UC, did you know in time to get help? Did you handle the issue on your own? If so, by choice or for time restraints? Did you feel capable, or did you feel overwhelmed?

I am asking to hear your stories, as I am trying to work through in my mind how I would feel / handle these emergencies if I had another UC. With my UC in 2007, somehow I felt unconcerned about emergencies. I studied, prepared, etc., but just didn't really feel worried. For some reason, it worries me now (even though I'm not preggo right now - LOL!).

TIA mamas!

[seattlemamma]

[angelarose1]

I can't exactly quantify how much I bled but I bled a lot. I don't have anything to compare it to as this was my first child, and can only say that immediately after birthing the placenta I bled about a quart into a large bowl and continued to gush blood, I felt light headed. I'm not sure if that qualifies as hemmorraging or not. I did eat my placenta raw immediately. A few hours later I was up and about with lots of energy, even though I hadn't slept in more than 24 hours.

[SarahInCA]

[deleteusername2]

My unassisted birth (our fourth child) was my most difficult childbirth, but I wouldn't have done it any other way. And yes, I would do it again. I didn't experience that intense of a problem as you describe. There was cord bleeding from my daughter, and I lost more blood than I should have but I'm not sure if I hemhorraged. You can read my birth story here and below are links to the ENTIRE story. It's all very long, but it explains what happened in our case if you're interested.

part one
part two
part three
part four

[firecat]

thanks for your story, erika~ it was inspiring and you gave me a lot of great things to think about. The part where you talk about how much you notice *everything* because you aren't relying on someone else is definitely something I'll tuck away for future reference

[kittywitty]

Somewhere on here is my story. I had a bit of retained placenta and ended up with a pph. The cord got pulled a little when I went from hands & knees to grab baby from my dh. I immediately started hemorrhaging. I knew when I saw that blood that I'd end up transferring. I just knew. I also used to be an EMT, though. I tried placenta out, placenta finally came out but I was too faintish to check it thoroughly. I tried some shepherd's purse and then the bleeding kept coming and even touching my belly to rub my uterus down made me feel like I'd pass out. So I jumped in the shower trying to rub it and put some placenta in my mouth. I had dh call the ambulance when it wouldn't stop. Strangely, it took over 2 hours for the hospital to do anything but give me an i.v. or methergine and then extracted the small piece and I was fine. So even though I felt that bad, it apparently wasn't that huge an emergency.

[Ish'smom]

I had a fast 3 hour and 45 min labor and my son came out limp and white, no color muscle tone or response whatsoever. I had dreamt this several times during the pregnancy and knew how to resuscitate it. I cleared his mouth and nose with my mouth. I gave him a few breaths and I talked to and rubbed him. Within a minute he started responding by moving a little opening his eyes and pinking up a bit, then he made breathing efforts and started crying. He was fine after that. I felt him kick while his head was beggining to crown and I am pretty sure that was when he got knocked out due to having a very short cord that may have been pinched between his shoulder and the birth canal. I had no indication that there was a problem until he was out but I feel that is because there was no problem until just then. I pushed him out very quickly after feeling him move. I did not feel overwhelmed, scared or ill equipped. I knew exactly what to do. I was only a bit scaredl later after my birth high was gone and I thought about how hard it would be if I had lost him. I wouldn't change anything about the experience, as far as my choices and handling of the situation.

[secondimpression]

Mine falls into the same category (at least for UCer's) as cord-around-the-neck: not a life-threatening emergency but perhaps worth mentioning.

We all know how "bad" it is to push before full dilation but there are some of us out there who feel that overwhelming urge to do so and have no choice but to act on it. With my son, I intended to UC but got freaked out when I got to 9.5 and didn't dilate further. I ignored the urge to push because everything I'd read said that doing so would result in a swollen cervix and c-section. Wound up transferring to the hospital for a birthrape where the OB simply pushed my cervix out of the way and DS was born vaginally without complications.

Fastforward to my daughter who was just born a few days ago...I again felt the urge to push before full dilation but this time listened to my body and pushed. My cervix prolapsed to the point that it was actually exterior to my body just before crowning. I did have a hands-off midwife present for personal reasons and she was able to confirm for me that it was my cervix and not the cord I was feeling and the remedy was the same as for my son: just push it out of the way. I did just that and had no problems. If I'd had a mirror handy, I wouldn't have had to ask her to check for me but hey, hindsight is 20/20

Now, if my midwife hadn't been there (she almost didn't make it in time)...I did feel intuitively deep down my body telling me that even if it was a cord prolapse, I was too far into pushing to do anything but keep pushing. I was also feeling a sense of calm beyond the fear in my concious mind saying that things were just fine and to just stop thinking and birth my baby. I think that intuition plays a huge role in birth, even when things don't follow the textbook examples and if we just learn to listen, we can handle a lot (obviously not all and not all the time) of minor emergencies on our own.