True Knot in the Cord

[Lizzardbits]

Just curious how often true knots are seen. Are they truely rare?

My son was born Jan 5th and his cord had one knot in it. He was very active during the 2nd trimester, but once he settled in the heads down position he stayed there, but all the time in utero was active (he was even kicking me in the middle or peaks of contractions during labor) So I am assuming that the knot happened early on.

Here is one of the pictures that we took of it. It was taken before we clamped and cut it, but after it had stopped pulsating. Please nevermind my stretchmarked belly
http://flickr.com/photos/18952650@N00/2194741307/

[Jane]

I've seen one, but it was brought for show 'n' tell - that doesn't count, I think.
Very cool.

How does this baby's weight compare to the weight of your daughter?

[Lizzardbits]

My Eldest Son was 7lbs 5oz 19 inches and was born at 41weeks 3days
My Daughter was 7lbs 2oz 19 inches and was born at 40weeks 3days
My #2 Son was 9lbs 10oz 22 inches and was born at 41weeks 6days

[Jane]

That knot wasn't kinking off his supply of food, then!

[ldsapmom]

My first had a true knot, and he was 9 pounds, 8 ounces; second baby was 9 pounds, 9 ounces, and third baby was 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

My OB saw his knot on ultrasound in the second trimester, and she didn't even bat an eyelash, so I didn't worry about it. I didn't think to take pics afterwards, but it was pretty neat looking!

[midoulamom]

One of my clients had one and I believe my daughter did, too. I remember them saying that she had a knot after she was born but I don't remember if they showed it to me or not. I was also wondering how rare it was. For my client the ob kept talking about how rare it was but I thought it was strange that I had one and I had only attended a few births and was seeing one. I will be curious to see how rare others say it is.

[mommy2maya]

My oldest dd had a true knot in her cord, the ob was very surprised to see it, he said true knots were quite rare, and she did good considering.

She was 42wk2days 7lb 6oz
Middle ds was 40w4d 8lb3oz
youngest dd was 37w1d 7lb3oz.

[notneb]

My DS had a true knot in his cord. He was born at 41 weeks and was 9 lbs 10 oz and 21 1/2", so no problem with the knot cutting off his food supply. I wish we had thought to take a picture...

[Peppamint]

I just got to see a true knot last week... the mama said her baby was super active- much more active than her first baby.

FWIW, we didn't hear any unusual decels or anything.

[Maggi315]

I've seen 3 true knots, which in my short career would say they are more common than I have been told. None were causing any problems, I took photos of one and saved one of the placentas for show and tell. I guess it would be interesting to see how many actually caused problems? or death? To me, cord accidents like that are the saddest thing...

[sevenkids]

I've seen a few, I'm always amazed when I see one!

[doctorjen]

I've attended about 360 births since I started in practice and I've had 5 with true knots. One had a true knot and 3 cord wraps around the neck and the knot itself was in one of the wraps. All 5 babies were normal size and had no difficulty. The wrapped 3 times and knotted cord was on a baby born in the caul and I was glad after that membranes never ruptured on their own as I worry that would have possibly compressed all that wrapping. Even though all of the births with knots I attended were just fine, I have a personal friend whose baby died at 35 weeks apparently due to a true knot that was kinked tight, so I always breathe a big sigh of relief and say a little prayer of thanks when I see one on a healthy baby.

[moonglowmama]

My daughter was born with a true knot. In researching my friend's recent cord accident I came across a statistic that said true knots are 1 in 1000. Sounds like they're more common than that, at least here!

Isn't there a correlation between nutrition and the effect of a knot? Better nutrition= more jelly=less negative impact of knots in the cord. That makes sense to me, anyway since nutrition impacts so many aspects of pregnancy.

Sarah

[bri276]

my cousin's baby had one, he was breech and I wonder if maybe that was why. she had a scheduled c-section at 38 wks and he was a normal size and healthy.

[granolamomma]

My son had a true knot that didn't cause decels until 2nd stage. It was kind of scary and the little monkey was pretty purple at first (1st Apgar was 2 ) but he's healthy now.

I don't think it's as rare as people think either.

[mothercat]

There is a mom on MDC (doulamom7) who had two babies in a row with true knots. This is out of 7 births.

I was her midwife for the second one. I knew her concerns because the first one had been a really scarey birth, with decels and such, but the second one was a very fast labor and she was only at the birth center about 5 minutes before he was born. He was very pink shortly after the birth so I am assuming the knot did not cause him any problems. Both babies were around 9#.

Yes, we did get pictures. So for me, that was 1 out of about 200 births. More common than 1/1000.

Linda

[stellimamo]

I saw one not to long ago in a client. Baby did great! No weight or decel issues.

[Lizzardbits]

I requested intermittent doppler heart tones during labor and I can only recall once that I was monitored during a contraction, and my midwife showed no concerns, so I assume that Alexander didn't have any decel issues, and his APGARS were high--9s I think.

So from the sounds of it, looks like knot are common, or at least in this community here at MDC.