My baby's survival of birth was quite possibly a miracle (pics of knot added) - Page 2

[notneb]

OP, congrats on the safe birth of your babe. Those pictures of the knot are so neat! I wish we had taken some. My DS also had a true knot in his cord, although it didn't cause any problems during birth. I was so impressed with the size of it when he was first born. It was baseball sized and pulsing along with the rest of the cord. DH was totally impressed. He still talks about it... "And then his shoulders were born, and the rest of him slipped out, and all I could see was this GIANT knot in the cord and his HUGE purple feet."

[veganf]

I'm glad everything turned out well for you and baby!

I've had one baby with a nuchal cord, one with a true knot, but never both together. My babe's true knot did not look tight like yours though. Here's mine (not exactly G-rated): http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r...t=DSCN5613.jpg

[ldsapmom]

The difference in tightness between pictures (the post above mine and the OP's) could be because of time passed when the picture was taken -- each cord's amount of time exposed to air. Once the cord is exposed to the air, the Wharton's Jelly solidifies, and the cord goes from being nice and plump and full-looking, to appearing as a flat ribbon. Vegan, yours could have appeared tighter, and been pulled tighter, had it been left longer exposed to air -- I am assuming your was only exposed for minutes as your placenta is still attached. Another point, while it is still attached to the placenta, there is still transfer, and that can keep the cord still pulsing and full with that cushy Wharton's Jelly.

Of course I am of the belief every baby's survival is a miracle .

Thanks for the pictures, ladies!

[JessicaS]

My dd's cord had a true knot, her cord was also short, which seems to happen in my family, she just got "stuck," they could see her head but she wouldn't come out.

I was in a pretty NB friendly hospital and they were bewildered, she was "right there" she just wouldn't come out. They didn't do the c-section from the decels but I went into shock.

The cord issues weren't known until after they were taking her out though. The surgeon and my Dr went "'Oooohhhh look at that cord!!!"

My Dr called her "knot in cord" baby for months afterwards. (he is kind of weird)

Just a fluke thing, my mom and sister both had c-sections due to short cords but they also both had VBACs afterwards so I feel confident that there won't be a repeat.

[MiamiMami]

My dd had a true knot as well. She was born via unnecessary c-section for FTP after a whopping 4 hours on pit and AROM :

After she was out the OB's made me believe it was divine intervention causing the FTP, otherwise she might not have survived delivery. :

[loraxc]

I meant to mention that my DD also had a triple nuchal cord along with the true knot. I saw the knot, and it looked very much like veganf's picture. I never heard a single nonreassuring word about DD's heartrate throughout my 34-hour labor (and I transferred at 26 hours for augmentation and pain relief...DD was posterior). Funny how these things happen.

After she was out the OB's made me believe it was divine intervention causing the FTP, otherwise she might not have survived delivery.

I am so freaking sure that if I'd had an OB they would have sectioned me and given me this same story.

[jennica]

Originally Posted by Snork

What I am saying is that I have seen babies stillborn due to true knots, it does happen, but not all true knots cause this.

But how do you know these babies were stillborn because of the knots? How do providers determine cause of death in cases like that? Is it just pinned on some physical thing that the provider can see, like a knot or a nuchal cord? What if a baby had a knot in the cord, but also a birth defect that was not physically apparant? Would you blame the knot, or are you only speaking of cases where all other causes of death have been ruled out? I think this statement you made above is very scary for women to read, and it is said with much confidence, however, to me it seems like pure speculation, and therefore should not be stated as solid fact if we really don't know why these babies died.

[ericswifey27]

Originally Posted by MiamiMami

After she was out the OB's made me believe it was divine intervention causing the FTP, otherwise she might not have survived delivery. :

Mine too. About my apgar of 9 baby: " Oh look at the cord wrapped around his neck. Thank goodness we didn't wait any longer" or something to that effect. Barf. No we in that decision.

[jennica]

Originally Posted by wannabe

well, there you go - you believe a benevolent god created you from scratch for everything to work perfectly. The reality, that we're cobbled together from whatever mutations arose and got kept, is why we DO need surgeons in a good 5+% of births.

Whether we were created or whether we evolved, the result is the same. Either we were designed from scratch by a creator and therefore our bodies are made to work perfectly, or, we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years and therefore we evolved to work perfectly. The reason that every single baby is not born vaginally with no problems at all, in either theory, is likely the same reason why every single baby is not born perfectly healthy, or why every single adult does not live to see old age, or why every single human is not fertile, or countless other examples. I don't know the answers to any of those questions, but sometimes stuff happens, and things don't run smoothly, despite our perfectly designed bodies, and/or, our perfectly evolved bodies. However, we are not "cobbled together". If a mutation arose that did not work, it quickly died out. Only mutations that worked survived.