Anyone NOT able to catch your own baby while UCing? - Page 2

[Funny Face]

Originally Posted by babygrey 

Not a UC'er, but another homebirth mama who couldn't catch. In fact, it is helping me process my DD's birth to read this thread bc I REALLY, REALLY wanted to catch. I'd envisioned catching my entire pg and my MW was fully supportive. Had a fast (~2hr) fierce labor, MW arrived ~3mins before babe was out. I was all positioned (on DH's lap, hanging off the side of a chair) to catch. I touched her head as she crowned, and MW and DH encouraged me to reach down and catch her as I pushed her body out, but I just couldn't. I don't know how better to explain it. My brain and heart wanted to, but my body just wouldn't go thru the motions to reach down. At the end, I asked MW to catch and hand her to me. I don't know, had I been alone, I would hope I would have been able to make my body do it. 

My DD did have a tight nuchal, and the MW slipped it off as she was born. I hope someone can answer you about that question, bc i don't know. 

g/l

I found this link with some various posts about nuchal cords and checking for the cord. An interesting start. http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/nuchlcrd.html

I tend to think in the 'I can't catch' scenario that if no one were around you wouldn't have been in that position in the first place and likely would have positioned yourself closer to the floor/soft surface instinctively.

Obviously I think that there are exceptions every once in awhile but I think they are very uncommon. 

[mrshoobydoober]

I reached down to feel him crowning and to ease his head out.  But beyond that, I needed dh to catch.  I was on my knees against the side of the pool and needed to lean against it with my arms while pushing.  Of course, had it just been me and only me, I would have managed it.  But dh was there and ready to catch.  :)  It really was a very sweet moment for us.  Just he and I, working together to welcome our son.  

[Batia]

I just had my 5th UC in May of this year and I birthed in a squatting position and just birthed baby out onto the floor. There was no need to catch him as my bum was so low due to squatting. before he was born during crowning I stopped pushing long enough to feel his sweet head which was full of hair! it was the most wonderful experience!! 

[IsaFrench]

I had no idea that I was going to birth my last one foot away from the toilet in my hospital room; instinct made me get up fast from sitting on the toilet basically, one mighty contraction (with a first howling growl) and I just felt I had to put one hand down, was in disbelief to find something so hard down there but I kept my hand there, a second mighty contraction straight away (with another strong howling growl that got the nurse lower down in the corridor running in fast) and I just had to get my second hand there & so stood about totally stunned, for 3 or 4 seconds with my baby in my hands, before the nurse arrived and grabbed the first towel she found to wrap the baby & removed the cord from around the neck.

I had read before in a kind of self-help manual that two things were important if unexpectingly attending a birth , that 1 - babies can be slippery and 2- they need to be wrapped up warmly rapidly

in retrospect, I was surprised to see how little blood there was on the floor after the birth & didn't think my baby was especially slippery (in spite of thinking that there was no way I was pushing consciously, my body was totally doing what it had decided-without me-  to do, I had no control whatsoever on the way that baby was ejected from me by my uterus ....)

+ was so stunned that I didn't think of grabbing my hand towel to wrap the baby straightaway

= of all 3 births, my most satisfying one I should say (rather empowering in fact)

[lotusma]

i've never been able to muster enough presence of mind to catch my babies, as much as i've wanted to. i was lying on on my left side thru ctx's w/ uc #1--didn't even open my legs as i was too focused on dealing w/ the pain, and dh caught. this birth was all involuntary pushing. (2 total)

2nd uc, again, laying on my side but this time on an air mattress as opposed to the floor, and baby slid right out and softly landed. i did guide her head out tho as she crowned (such a cool tactile memory to have ingrained in my hand) and i gently pulled her from behind her head/back of neck to assist in a more efficient delivery. 2nd stage was pretty much all voluntary pushing, tho, as i was exhausted and my uterus puttery.

[Banana731]

I didn't. It was just logistically impossible with my position in the water. Dh was behind me, so he brought her up. It was actually really akward at that point to then lift my leg over the cord to flip over, so (duh) it would have been better for him to push her forward between my legs. But it wasn't that big a deal ulitimately. It was still our birth experience, entirely intimate and lovely.

[Serenyd]

I caught, both times, once from h&k and once from standing. There was no way I was letting my babies hit the floor, and there was no one else nearby to help out. It wasn't that hard. I didn't check for cord. I checked myself for cord prolapse after my waters broke though.

[claddaghmom]

I was unable to catch my daughter b/c the position that enabled me to push effectively had both my arms up. 

I could have caught my son as I was on all fours in the birth pool.

But both times I wanted daddy to catch. It was just something special that I wanted him to do....

But ITA that it's ridiculous to think a mama won't catch her baby, unless she's out cold or something......

[kitkatkaddoodle]

I am an L&D nurse who had an unplanned UC, but I knew several minutes before she was born that it was going to be me catching and there was no way I was making it to the birth center. I didn't catch. I knew what I needed to do, I wasn't panicking, I had already directed my husband to help me pull off my shorts and get me towels, and I was trying my best to "sigh" the baby out, but no way in hell could I make myself reach down and catch. Thankfully, I was on all fours and crouched down over the towels, so she landed there (my husband was too surprised to catch), and she was totally fine.

[Sijae]

Originally Posted by kitkatkaddoodle 

I am an L&D nurse who had an unplanned UC, but I knew several minutes before she was born that it was going to be me catching and there was no way I was making it to the birth center. I didn't catch. I knew what I needed to do, I wasn't panicking, I had already directed my husband to help me pull off my shorts and get me towels, and I was trying my best to "sigh" the baby out, but no way in hell could I make myself reach down and catch. Thankfully, I was on all fours and crouched down over the towels, so she landed there (my husband was too surprised to catch), and she was totally fine.

I think that's the whole point really, babies don't need to be caught if they have a safe place to land.

[goldenwillow]

Homebirth water baby here as well. 

I was on all fours when it came down to it and DS actually went swimming for a moment and my MW grabbed him and placed him on my chest, happened so fast.  Cord was just floating with us!  DH said that our MW's assistant whispered to our MW that "the baby is out!" ... birthed in a bathroom really big enough for my tub, hard to see!

[kawa kamuri]

Originally Posted by claddaghmom 

But ITA that it's ridiculous to think a mama won't catch her baby, unless she's out cold or something......

I swore there have been many examples given in this thread of mamas unable to catch their babies. 

[a13xandra]

There's no way I could have caught my daughter.  I was on my hands and knees, and though I felt her head with one hand, I couldn't have moved from that position if I wanted to.  In fact, I had to have help moving after birth because my joints and muscles had locked up after the hours of hard work.  I wouldn't have chosen a different position, even if I were alone. It didn't feel like a choice at that point.  I was running on adrenaline and body mechanics, and after over two hours of pushing, for all I knew it was going to be a couple more hours when she did shoot out of there. 

[Sharlla]

I didn't really catch her. she came out then I reached down between my legs and pulled her up out of the water.  I was hugging DH who was in front of me and on my knees

[mamaofthree]

with my UC it was totally easy to catch the baby, i think it depends on what position you are in. i was on the bed, so even if i couldn't get to him he would have just landed on the bed. during another birth at a birth center they had be catch the baby and again, not a big deal. 

h