Self-diagnosing Cord Prolapse

[Maprilynne]

Well, long story short, there is a good chance I won't be able to deliver in a birth center because of high fluid levels. So if I have to go to a hospital you can bet your boots that I won't be going in early. We are planning to stay home at least untill my water breaks (maybe a bit longer, we'll see ) However, because the risk of cord prolapse is higher with excess fluid, I have been researching how to self-diagnose it. And, big surprise, can't find anything. I know what to do if it is, and I found a very helpful website run by a homebirth midwife who give suggestions on how to avoid it during labor, but how do you know if you do have it? I assume that you could stick your fingers up there (sorry if TMI, but heym this is the UC forum.) and could feel the cord coming down through the cervix . . . am i right? Anyone had any experience with this?
TIA for the Help!
Aprilynne

[hawkfeather]

generally it is better to be able to daignose a *potential* prolapse before it has actually happened.. but with polyhydramnios or excess fuliud it is harder somtimes to determine.. you can feel your own pulse in the vagina.. which of course is not the same speed as babies..feeling a cord *through* your cervix and through a bag of waters can be tricky.. especially with extra waters!.. if your bag has ruptured and head is floating than the cord would liekly slip out and with a clean hand you could feel it coming out from the cervix.. however if the head is not floating the cord could be tight against the headnot alwasy hanging down but just presenting fist on the babies head.. which you could still likely feel..

[Defenestrator]

First of all, you may be able to treat you high fluid levels homeopathically. I work in a midwifery practice and have seen moms with excess fluid respond very well to homeopathic sea salt, or natrum muriaticum (aka nat mur). We give moms a 200c dose and ask them to take 3 doses every other day. If they don't respond, we ask them to take one 1M dose.

As far as the water breaking and cord prolapse, a lot depends on when it breaks in labor. If it breaks before labor begins, there is a higher risk. Some moms can feel the cord in the vagina, but it doesn't have to be that low to cause a problem. Do you think you might buy a fetoscope or rent a doppler? If you could hear the baby's heartbeat continue to be within normal ranges,that would be reassuring. A heartrate that dips sharply during contractions would be a sign of cord compression.

When your water breaks late in labor, the head is usually well-applied and the risks can be much lower.

More later,gotta go. Good luck!

[Maprilynne]

Thank-you for your advice . . .. how do you use sea-salt to help treat ployhy? Just eat it? Drink salt water? Sprinkle it on food. It sounds very interesting.
Aprilynne

[cottonwood]

Yes, you could stick your fingers up there -- the cord would be in the vagina or actually hanging out of the vagina. There's such a thing as a hidden prolapse, though, where the cord is between the head and the pelvis. I've just read about it, never heard of it happening.

Anyway, if your water breaks with a slow trickle, I wouldn't worry, likewise if the head is already engaged. But if it breaks with a gush and the baby was known to not be engaged and especially if you were lying down when it happened, that would be a situation in which I would be especially alert to the possibility.

Well, I just read in Special Delivery that risk of prolapse is 1 in 30,000. My gosh, is that true? That is really rare, especially considering all that attendants sometimes do to set up ideal conditions for a prolapse to occur.

So anyway.... what if your water never breaks? Does that mean you'll be having a UC?

[Maprilynne]

"So anyway.... what if your water never breaks? Does that mean you'll be having a UC?"

"No, of course not." <as my head nods up and down.>
Aprilynne

[Defenestrator]

It is not just sea salt, but homeopathic sea salt.
When other people talk to me about homeopathics, I feel like nodding my head and saying, "Yeah, right . . " but I have seen them work and work well. They are substances, like sea salt or plant substances or metals or even viruses that have been diluted again and again so that almost no trace (or in some cases, no measurable trace) of the original substance remains. They stimulate the body to heal itself. So, someone who wants to cure poison ivy rash might take homeopathic poison ivy, called rhus tox, which would stimulate the body to heal the rash without actually causing damage to the skin the way that the undiluted plant substance would.

Salt and water are in constant balance in cells, in our tissues. Water flows in and out of cells through osmosis in relationship to how much salt is in the cells. Homeopathic nat mur works to restore the balance of water throughout the body in a way that regular salt cannot. We have used it for polyhydramnios and for its opposite, oligohydramnios. It seems to simply rebalance water, whether there is too much or too little.

This kind of homeopathic comes in the form of little pellets. The pellets themselves are just a vehicle-- they are often made of milk sugar -- the substance is on the outside of them. You shake 4 or 5 into your mouth and let them dissolve under the tongue. They come in different strengths which are designated by a letter and a number, like 6x or 10M. Here is where it gets a little weird -- the more dilute a homeopathic, the more powerful it is. As I understand it, the x means that the subtance has been diluted x number of times, so 6x has been diluted 6 times. The c stands for hundreds of times and the m for thousands of times. 30c is usually the strongest that you can buy in a regular store. 200c is what we often use for problems that need a strong action to change. We have a homeopathic pharmacy in my town, but you can probably look online for a source. 1M and 10M are very strong remedies that are usually used only under the guidance of a homeopath. They will often act on long-buried underlying issues that lie under the root of a problem.

Homeopathics are not expensive. If you can take the time to order a remedy, it might be worth a try.


Here is a link that describes a regimen of nat mur at lower potencies, if you can only find a low potency. This is from a midwife local to me -- she varies a little from what I had previously written for the 200c regimen, but I think it doesn't matter all that much --


http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/...Polyhydramnios

Good luck!

[Kundalini-Mama]

toh

http://www.abchomeopathy.com/ A great place to purchase homeopathic remedies & a wealth of info too.

Not sure if this is on the website, but when you use homeopathic remedies, you need to stay away from MINT, either smelling or ingesting. You can find mint-free toothoaste (mine says "safe for homeopathy" on it) at youtr local hfs.

hth
Amy (who has wonderful experience w/homeopathy)

[Maprilynne]

Thank-you so such for the advice on homeopathy! I especially appreciate the websites; both were very helpful. Thank-you again!!!
Aprilynne