Questions about pitocin and umbilical cords? - Page 2

[moonglowmama]

Re: Questions about pitocin and umbilical cords?

Originally posted by HokieGirl
And the nurse pipes in with "But I know one woman who's babies' cord got wrapped around her neck and the EFM alerted them and the nurse was able to manually push the child back up until the woman could be cut open and the child delivered by c-section."

Kristi

I just want to point out that the logic of the nurse's response is ludicrous.

First, if the baby's cord was wrapped around the neck, there is no way a nurse could have known that was what had happened. It could only have been discovered after the c/s took place.

Which means that the EFM alarm went off (for who knows what reason) and the nurse kept the baby from coming out. In my very-biased opinion, probably because the dr was on lunch or taking a nap or somewhere else. Then the alarm kept going off, because now the baby really is in distress, because it is being pushed in 2 different directions.

Nurse or someone calls for emergency c/s. And it is scenarios like that contribute to the reason why women placed on EFM instead of fetoscope monitoring have such a higher c/s%.

This is precisely the reason I hope never to give birth in a hospital! The interference virtually always results in some sort of trauma to mother and or child.

[Kirsten]

I just have to speak to "cord around the neck" as a valid reason for c-section. My dd2 was born with the cord around her neck twice. Midwife just slipped it off. No big deal and she was fine. I knew from our Bradley classes that a cord around the neck was not uncommon so I didn't freak when it was discovered.

My neighbor had a c-section with her first and the docs told her it was a good thing she did since he had the cord around his neck twice. She believed that at the time. And maybe for a baby with a very short cord, this could be a legitimate problem. But in my case, the midwife just slipped the cord over her head (twice), I pushed again, and she was born.
Kirsten

[momto3boys]

I had my first son in the hospital and he had 4 cords. I will give you all the video. You can see his head and the dr just casually slipping the cords over his head He counts to the nurse "2 cords, 3,4 5 cords. No 4 cords." the 5th hadn't completed a full round the neck course. And the nurse says to my baby,"Were you doing sommersaults in there?"

No crazy alarms. No oxygen deprivation. Just slip over the head and continue. He did hold his head steady as to not come sliding out for about 6 seconds and then he was born. Nursed right away and today he's 7 1/2 yrs old. I was told He had a very long thick cord and because of this he wasn't in any stress. Who knows? It worked out. If he did have an extra long cord it was probably good it wrapped around him and didn't prolapse when the dr AROM.

So I had 40 hrs of labor with AROM and pit with the cord around the neck 4 times and no stress issues. Now I would never in my lifetime be induced again. And this time around I am having a water birth. But the cord around the neck fear is very misleading.

Although I do know a woman who has had 3 stillborns because of very short cords. As soon as the baby drops he dies. She has been monitored and scheduled for c/s at 36 weeks, but 3x(not kidding really happened) the baby dies the day before. She has 3 healthy boys. But 2 sons and a daughter that have died because of a genetic malformation of the cord. They say the cords are less than 10 inches long. Very rare. And she has not even had good outcomes with constant monitoring and the best specialists.

[Greaseball]

COrd around neck is more common than people realize (and I spent five minutes looking for numbers and can't find them lol).

I've heard some different numbers here, but check out Mendelson MD, author of "Mal(e) Practice: How Doctors Manipulate Women." He says about 2/3 of babies have cords around their necks, and most of them more than once. He still thinks home delivery is safest for these babies.

I think there is some cord stuff on www.unassistedchildbirth.com that says you don't even have to slip it over the baby's head; the body just slides through it.

Open Season mentions a healthy VBAC where there was a true knot in the cord.

About the short cord: I have heard of this as a reason for c/s. Wouldn't it show up on an ultrasound?

The EFM cannot pick up such specific things as how many times the cord is around the neck. It only measures the contractions and the baby's heartbeat, and different hospitals have different acceptable heart rate ranges. Now, how it is the babies in one hospital are so different from those in the hospital across town? Oh, maybe it's not the BABIES...

If the fetus was not safe in utero after a 24 hour labor with broken membranes, the uterus would eject it. The fact that some labors go on for a week says that's probably just what some babies need.

[annakiss]

And maybe for a baby with a very short cord, this could be a legitimate problem.

If a short cord is wrapped around the neck, it won't slip over the head. But if you support the head by holding it in place, the body can be flipped over the head as it is born to prevent strangulation. Or the cord can be cut before the body is born to loosen it from the neck.