Comments for Midwife Thinking

Comment on Guest post: when birth is trauma by Mel

Mel — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:08:52 +0000

The birth of my 5th child was traumatic to me and since, I have had so many emotional issues, nightmares and extreme anxiety. Thank you for this article because it validates my experiences and feelings.

Comment on The Placenta: essential resuscitation equipment by Susie

Susie — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:53:12 +0000

Hi Rachel,
I had a homebirth with my first but was transferred to hospital due to my PPH & 3rd deg tears.

2nd birth (in hosp) I was told that (despite my birth plan) cord must be cut immediately so that syntocinon drugs could be administered to me to prevent PPH again.

I’m now pregnant for a 3rd time, is it safe to leave cord and wait and see if I need drugs for PPH? I’m unsure what I should request re cord clamping as I’d like to leave it until finished pulsing but want to provide an informed justification.

Definitely feels like you need to be “information armed against the system” to have a natural birth these days!

Love your blog!!!
Susie

Comment on Cord Blood Collection: confessions of a vampire-midwife by Angelina

Angelina — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:48:02 +0000

I´ d like to ask just one question: Is really possible to remove all the volume of blood from placenta to the baby? Isn´t there any surplus? I think there must be, because without an extra amount of blood placental circulation wouldn´work. In my opinion the placental circulation is something like the extracorporal circulation. Is there any study about it?
Thank you very much!

Comment on The Curse of Meconium Stained Liquor by Kylie Mackay - Steen

Kylie Mackay - Steen — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:26:36 +0000

Wow… I’m 36/40 and so excited about my birth. I’m feeling empowered more so now about following my own path… Thank you

PS- check out juju sundin ( Australian physio) and her birthing classes techniques they focus on movement, vocalization, breathing, and visualization. Basically they encourage birthing
Mothers to make noise and listen to their bodies…. Please check it out. Her skills set may be useful to you also.

Thanks again

Kylie

Comment on Cord Blood Collection: confessions of a vampire-midwife by Concerned

Concerned — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:47:59 +0000

Oh and don’t forget the mention of the practise causing autism. What a crock. Let’s just heap more guilt on mums that choose to store cord blood. And you claim that you are all about accurate information being given to parents. Please, spare us.

Comment on The Curse of Meconium Stained Liquor by Time4Latte

Time4Latte — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:41:29 +0000

Wonderful post! My second was born at 41 weeks 3 days and my water broke as I started pushing in the whirlpool tub. The hospital does not allow waterbirth so I had to get out of the tub. I changed positions several times. There was no indication of meconium stained fluid until he came out covered in greenish fluid. His apgars were great! When my doula mentioned something about him coughing up meconium, my doula and I started to get concerned, we both knew it was a common reason for an “emergency” c-section. It was my midwife who said he’s fine and that they didn’t recommend deep suction anymore for babies who have aspirated meconium. Her standard protocol was immediate skin to skin,delayed cord clamping. After I got home, I did some more reading. It really cemented that I made the right choice in provider.

Comment on The Placenta: essential resuscitation equipment by Rose

Rose — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:04:00 +0000

I would like to kindly suggest you are WAY over thinking things. In order to gasp, you must first, albeit quickly, in-draw air (aka breath). If you just held your breath there would be no gasping, along with no breathing. The quick gasp would be enough to initiate the transition to breathing.

Also, being a Canadian that had my baby at home, I also know the bulb syringe is not necessary. I would like to suggest that routine practice is actually quite harmful, and I think the bulb syringe contributes to the the abysmally low breastfeeding initiation rates in the US. One anecdotal case is an infant I provide nursing care to, that still has phenomenal feeding problems, due to over zealous suctioning at his very medicalized birth. He is still on a feeding tube @ 6 months old.

Comment on Cord Blood Collection: confessions of a vampire-midwife by midwifethinking

midwifethinking — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:55:44 +0000

Grace – in some cases it is possible to wait until the cord stops pulsing and still be able to get enough cord blood for storage. The main point I am making is that this should not be considered the norm and parents should not delay clamping assuming there will be enough left. You may have been lucky and had enough left after the cord vessels had closed off. Some people leave the cord until it is totally limp or even keep the baby attached for days (lotus birth). The blood transfer from placenta to baby occurs over the first few minutes and is usually complete by 10. This may be longer during a water birth because the cord can remain warm ie. not stimulated to vasoconstrict. If you are concerned contact the cord bank and ask how much they collected.

Comment on The Anterior Cervical Lip: how to ruin a perfectly good birth by Ruth

Ruth — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:20:38 +0000

With my 3rd labour, the baby was posterior throughout the entire labour, and I didn’t get the urge to push until nearly completely dilated and on my hands and knees – just before I turned over, the baby rotated into the correct birthing position, and I started to feel the need to push. Until that moment, there was nothing to push against. As I began to push the doctor told me there was an anterior lip, and I just reached down and started pushing it back myself without even knowing what I was doing. he guided my hand, pulling it back when it looked like I was being too rough, just encouraging me to be gentle, but my instinctive response worked, and the lip was pushed aside, and I was able to birth my girl without any difficulty at all. I was blessed with a doc who was extremely passionate about a woman guiding her own birthing process.

Comment on Cord Blood Collection: confessions of a vampire-midwife by Megan Benson

Megan Benson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:52:37 +0000

Both my babies were born by c-section, one had all the medicalisation under the sun from IOL through to vit K injection – none of which was under informed consent, she was hugely jaundiced and had photo therapy My youngest however while a planned homebirth was also born by c-section, I requested delayed cord clamping in theatre (got so much that the placenta separated and I was offered a lotus birth by the O+G) and declined vit K all together – no jaundice at all. As a midiwife I really believe that the more we do the more harm we cause – including jaundice, even directive pushing causes harm to mother and baby, perhaps as someone mentioned earlier it is what we are ‘doing’ that is causing the problems rather than what we are not doing…