[snowbird25ca]

I have very fast deliveries and with dd she delivered in one contraction & my uterus totally quit contracting... maybe 5 mins later my placenta detached & I started to bleed really bad...

In the end I ended up with an IV of pitocin started and having my uterus massaged by my dr. to get it to slow the bleeding & thankfully I didn't need a transfusion.

So anyways, with that bit of history, I'm trying to plan for this baby's arrival. Right now I'm seeing an OB because I developed a subchorionic bleed at 11wks and it kept growing up until about 16wks. I've also been tentatively diagnosed with a bleeding disorder - probably Van Willdebrand Factor, but I haven't seen the hematologist yet...

I really like the OB that I was referred to & she's very open to doing things how I want them to be done... she was iffy about delayed cord cutting but said if that's what I wanted then she'd do it. She's been great about everything else too, but the problem is that she is due with a baby the beginning of November & I'm due the end of November. So she won't be the dr. I'll be seeing for the last month of my pregnancy & I don't know who will be delivering or what their policies will be...

We have a program that's close by that is run by 1 or 2 midwives and is kind of a birthing center I guess you could say... it's tacked onto a community hospital and is being run as part of a government trial program to compare pregnancy/delivery outcomes while they consider if they should fund midwives or not. I'm kind of thinking I might like to go out there if the midwife would take me, but I'm just not sure about the whole bleeding thing & all that.

Guess I'm kind of rambling & my best bet would be to just try & get in touch with the program out there, but I'd really appreciate any advice anyone could offer about post partum hemorrhage, if they were able to have a midwife delivery or even a homebirth and even if you have tips on reducing the likelihood of a pph that would be great.

Basically anything relevant I'd appreciate hearing about.

TIA

 

[the_lissa]

I had a pph with my first (attempted home birth- hospital transfer) and had a midwife attended home birth with my two weeks old.

You would have to ask the midwives what they do for a hemorrhage. I planned on eating a piece of placenta if I hemorrhaged again or taking shepherd's purse. Midwives here (Ontario) carry oxytocin and other meds and can start an iv while calling an ambulance for transport if it came to that.

 

[boscopup]

I haven't dealt with PPH myself, but I know my homebirth style midwife (CPM) carries pitocin in shot format, and she has dealt with PPH. She told me about one time where she gave the pit shot and called EMTs as a just in case measure. EMTs arrived, and by then, the mother was doing fine, but she had the EMTs wait outside for an hour just to be sure.

If this program you're talking about is attached to a hospital, then it's probably CNMs who would be even more likely to have the ability to give pitocin (some states don't allow CPMs to carry it, I think), and also - you're basically AT the hospital, so it's not like they can't wheel you in there and get you a transfusion if it's absolutely necessary.