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baby has underdeveloped lungs--help

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#1 ·
one of my closest friend is pregnant and is 37 weeks. It is a very long story but her doctor wanted to have a c-section last week but ended up not doing it because ultrasound indicated baby's lungs were underdeveloped.

basically baby's due date is Nov 1 but his lungs are reading like a baby in the mid 20 weeks.

Has anyone had a similiar situation or known of similiarly? My friend is panicked that baby's lungs won't get to the fully developed position--and is geniunely concerned as to why they are so small now..

if you know how these tests go... ( I don't) she indicated that one test (I think the lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio)-- she was suppose to be a 2.0 and she turned out to be a 1.4.

On another test she was suppose to be 40 and she was 14. I am not sure what test that was..

anyway, if anyone has had a similiar experience can you tell me how it went with you and your baby. my friend is worried sick. The doctor said that he will probably deliver the baby on the 24th. by the way, the baby is very big and all the other organs appear to be okay.

any help appreciated.

thank you mucho
tracy
 
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#2 ·
An u/s can't determine lung maturity. A biophysical profile can tell if a baby is using them or not and more about maturity than a regular u/s can. Other tests can be done via amniocentesis to determine maturity. If it were me, I wouldn't "let them deliver" me at all, especially fi they are telling me lungs aren't mature. That's just askingfor prolems, the more days I can bake that baby in mywomb the better off they'll be. I'd at least make them hold off until the due date for the c/s, for whatever reason she needs it. Does she knohw that c/s babies often have a harder time breathing? A baby who may already have lung problems probablydoesn't need that added to it's precious new life unless it's really necessary. I don't know much about lung maturity that is off by more than a week or so. I hope that she and her baby get really good care though andI truly wishthem the best.

Namaste, Tara
mama to Doodle (7), Butterfly (2), and Rythm (due at home 1/06)
 
#3 ·
My POV comes from a lifetime of living with homebirthers ... I hope I do not offend anyone, however...



Of course the baby's lungs are immature! He has four more weeks to go, and still the baby could wait another four weeks; those due dates are not set in stone.....unless the mother has diabetes, kidney or heart disease, cancer, eclapsia, or pre-eclapsia, or some other disease or condition which is compromising her health/life by staying pregnant and the baby needs to exit soon.



Is there some reason why they cannot let her begin labor on her own and then just deliver the baby?

Doctors know,
, but often will not acknowledge the fact that babies do better with even a little labor even if a caesarean is planned, for whatever reason. There appears to be a chemical communication that goes on between the baby, the placenta, the mother's pituitary gland and the uterus that lets the mother's body know to get ready for the big event.

Too often doctors think they can do better with their drugs and machines; they like to play 'hero' and save the day.

My closest brother was born at home in April 1963. The same year, President JFK's second son was born prematurely by elective caesarean section with the very best of medical care in August 1963 and died of hyaline membrane disease/respiratory distress syndrome because of immature lungs. That was over forty years ago.

There is the shake test, and the oxytocin test (stress test that look for type I, II, 0 dips), fetal blood test, estriol level test, cellular examination, and tests for meconium staining, bilirubin, and creatine. Let me know if you want to know about any of these test that determine fetal maturity.

Doctors have still not learned.

I hope your friend is doing well. If she can wait at all, it would be good for the baby.

And, Tracy, yes, I have seen this kind of thing several times over my many years, and it always works out, but the Doctors act like they are G-d.

 
#5 ·
thanks for the replies, everyone. Yep, I know this is one of those kind of pregnancies that we want to say...NO...please please have baby vaginally on baby's terms....but the deal is she had a cesearan a few years ago with her first child and her doctor is pretty conservative so not a huge VBAC proponent. So, no vaginal birth..sigh.

Her pregnancy has been hideously hard and as an observer I would say it has been pretty awful. She has thrown up the entire pregnancy about 10-20 times a day. Blood in her vomit, has been to the hospital several times for other issues...in addition when they saw how big baby was, she was tested for GD and her numbers came right on the border...plus she is so stressed it has been hard on the baby too so the doctor thought he would see if he could get baby out early. And thats when she learned that his lungs were sooooooo underdeveloped.

anyway, baby is staying in mommy at least another week -- possibly to due date.. phew.

at one point in the pregnancy her anemia was pretty bad and her numbers were so low that I came here and found a really helpful mommy who gave her some advice on bringing up her numbers and my friend was so grateful so that was why she asked me if I knew anyone who had a baby's lungs read small so close to due date and then turn out to be right on development by the time of birth?

has anyone experienced that? or know someone who has?

thanks so much.
 
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