Nancy, the birth assistant, and I all started rubbing the baby (all 9 lbs., 11 ozs and 21 inches of her) to get her to breathe. She was very blue, so Nancy gave her some oxygen and we wrapped her up well. She was born at 11 p.m., five minutes after the cord prolapse. By the time the fire department, rescue squad and ambulance got to the birth center, the baby was on my chest and Nancy was trying to deliver the placenta. So here I was, naked from the chest down, lying in a large puddle of blood and meconium, while all these guys wander in and out of the room. Nancy kept saying, "Would you guys mind waiting outside", but then a new batch would arrive and come into the room to see what was going on. We wanted them to stick around because we weren¹t sure if we would have to transfer the baby, now named Leah, to the hospital. Since she was breathing well on her own and had an APGAR of 6 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes, we decided to keep her at the Center and let the crowd go back to the station.
We stayed at the Center for the night (the normal stay is 4-8 hours post-partum) so that Nancy could keep Leah under observation. She was still blue in the face, although her body was nice and pink. We put her in the incubator to warm her up and all the blueness disappeared. The whole event hit us after everything calmed down and Nancy was stitching me up. All I could say for hours was "Oh my God, oh my God." I tried to sleep, but couldn¹t, I just kept replaying the whole thing in my head. I've learned quite a bit about cord prolapse since Leah's birth. For one, her cord was extra long (30-36"), which increases the risk. Also, she apparently flipped around to anterior position while I was sitting on the toilet, which disengaged her head and allowed the cord to slip down. I have learned that fetuses, when their outside supply of oxygen is cut off, are able to recirculate their blood for a short time, squeezing every last bit of oxygen out of the red blood cells. So, although Leah wasn't getting any oxygen from me for 5 minutes, she didn't suffer any brain damage. Nature finds a way.
I've been asked many times, wouldn't I have had a better experience in a hospital setting? I believe that, no, I had a much better outcome in a birth center for 3 reasons: 1I was unmedicated, so I had enough feeling to get the baby out; 2I knew my midwife (she delivered my first child too) and she knew me, so together we made the decision to push the baby out rather than wait for the ambulance to arrive. This was against accepted protocol; and 3I felt much safer relying on my body and nature rather than machinery.
And at the same time, I learned something about myself: I can do anything! If I can push an almost 10 lb. baby out at 8 cm in under 2 minutes, I know I can raise that child well too. Leah is now a happy, healthy 2 month old.
Liz
