Gloria Lemay's reaction to the UC piece on GMA - Page 2

[moodymaximus]

Originally Posted by LoveChild421

What role does having the baby taken away to be "inspected" and given all the routine procedures rather than given to the mother to nurse IMMEDIATELY play? Nursing helps the uterus contract. Nature gives us safeguards.

but many babies don't nurse immediately. DS was at my breast right away, but didn't want to nurse for quite a while.

[LoveChild421]

Originally Posted by moodymaximus

but many babies don't nurse immediately. DS was at my breast right away, but didn't want to nurse for quite a while.

I think part of it is also the skin to skin contact and the hormones (oxytocin mainly) that are released during mother-child bonding which help the uterus to contract (its synthetic oxytocin (pitocin) after all this is used in hospitals as a matter of routine when delivering the placenta to prevent hemorrage). Nursing helps but I think just having a natural mother-child bonding stage, keeping the mom and baby warm and cozy together, while the placenta is being born and after is so crucial. I don't think oxytocin is released in the same way when you are lying there being stitched up watching people poke and prod your crying baby rather than being bundled up loving on each other.

[Gilby]

Originally Posted by LoveChild421

I think part of it is also the skin to skin contact and the hormones (oxytocin mainly) that are released during mother-child bonding which help the uterus to contract (its synthetic oxytocin (pitocin) after all this is used in hospitals as a matter of routine when delivering the placenta to prevent hemorrage). Nursing helps but I think just having a natural mother-child bonding stage, keeping the mom and baby warm and cozy together, while the placenta is being born and after is so crucial. I don't think oxytocin is released in the same way when you are lying there being stitched up watching people poke and prod your crying baby rather than being bundled up loving on each other.

Yep, it's true. You don't have to actually nurse to receive some of the benefits of the hormones involved in nursing which help prevent hemorrhage. For moms who are trying to relactate, if the baby isn't used to nursing they say to spend as much time with the baby next to your skin and nuzzled at the breast... your body interprets it much the same way. So amazing!

[crazy_eights]

Originally Posted by NatureMama3

In all reality women DO die from hemorrhage in the hospital plenty.

I'd love to see some stats to back that up. I've worked L&D for 7 years in a larger city and we hear about maternal deaths, even ones not in the facilities I've worked in. I've yet to hear of one from hemorrhage. Amniotic fluid embolism and other embolisms are the ones that I remember, but again, none from hemorrhage. The one death I've heard of from hemorrhage is one that nurses still talk about and it happend years ago - but it happend in far longer than 5 minutes, it was a c/sec, the mother was in DIC and a Jehovah's Witness that refused transfusion. Definitely not a simple case of "oh, she bled out".

[crazy_eights]

Originally Posted by NatureMama3

I don't think hemorrhage is unpredictable. In the case of my former OB it was the woman's 8th child and she had a history of it. Obviously her first hemorrhage was not fatal (nor those after) and were warning beacons. What I don't know is was the child induced? was pitocin used? was the placenta taken out by traction? was the mother exhausted due to no food during labor? Those are hospital-born risks that can make a tendency to hemorrhage worse.

She also could have had a genetic issue, such as Von Willebrands, that would have made it much more likely for a hemorrhage. Or weird placental implantation - low lying placental implantation tends to bleed A LOT. The lower uterine segment doesn't contract the same way the upper parts do to act as the "living ligature".

[crazy_eights]

Originally Posted by Romana9+2

I do believe there are - they supply blood to the placenta.

Uterine artery. But no, it's not "in the uterus".

[crazy_eights]

#

[Romana]

Originally Posted by mom2seven

Uterine artery. But no, it's not "in the uterus".

Ok, then I'm going to google for a quick anatomy lesson, because it was my understanding that blood is supplied directly to the attachment site of the placenta, and if the placenta detaches but the uterus does not contract/blood flow does not stop as it should (or placenta partially detaches) you basically have blood pouring in that space. So, I'm going to go give myself a quick anatomy less to try to make sense of it.

[Romana]

Maternal placental circulation
The maternal blood enters the intervillous space through endometrial arteries (spiral arteries), 80 to 100 in number. They pierce the decidual plate and then pass through the gaps in cytotrophoblastic shell. As the artery enters, it is under high pressure because it enters through the small gap; this pressure forces the blood deep into intervillous spaces and bathes the villi. Exchange of gases takes place. As the pressure decreases, the deoxygenated blood flows backwards to the decidua and enters the endometrial veins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placenta

Oh yeah, that helps.

Wow, and if you keep reading, there's a real swan song in there for active 3rd stage management. Cord traction and all. Yuck.

[JesseMomme]

oops I was thinking of Ina May : n/m Ok I will GO read the link now :

Ohh I posted in my blog (sig) what I posted in that discussion the other day.

[cellarstella]

I most likely have Von Willebrand's... it runs in my family and I have all the symptoms. In my HB, the midwife actually wanted to do cord traction!: She tugged slightly I yelled "ooooowwwww!" to freak her out even though it didn't hurt. I birthed the placenta beautifully about 5 minutes later, on my own. No real hemorrhaging, but I passed some baseball sized clots for a couple of days. It's a miracle I lived. That midwife is one reason I'm on the path to UC next time.

By the way, I slightly edited that wiki.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by mom2seven

Uterine artery. But no, it's not "in the uterus".

Well, there'd have to be at least one artery that could open up during labor for a 5 minute time frame on bleeding to death. I mean, it took at least 20 minutes just to get a pint out of a vein when I gave blood and I was nowhere near even fainting from that little amount.

[moodymaximus]

Originally Posted by LoveChild421

I think part of it is also the skin to skin contact and the hormones (oxytocin mainly) that are released during mother-child bonding which help the uterus to contract (its synthetic oxytocin (pitocin) after all this is used in hospitals as a matter of routine when delivering the placenta to prevent hemorrage). Nursing helps but I think just having a natural mother-child bonding stage, keeping the mom and baby warm and cozy together, while the placenta is being born and after is so crucial. I don't think oxytocin is released in the same way when you are lying there being stitched up watching people poke and prod your crying baby rather than being bundled up loving on each other.

makes sense.

[danotoyou2]

This is interesting.

I have a friend who had a homebirth, and hemorrhaged. When she got to the hospital, she needed a blood transfusion, was put under general anesthetic, and was told that they might not save her uterus (they did, she went on to have another child). She was very close to death with this incident.

But... she was in a metro area, and it took them over an hour to get her to a hospital. If she'd been closer to a hospital it wouldn't have gotten to that point.

So, here was a MAJOR hemmorhage that could have killed her... and she's fine. The only problem was being located too far from a hospital.

That doctor is full of crap.