Can someone help me with some terminology?

[CookieMonster2]

I had a baby recently and I have been looking at the sheet they give you with all the birth details on.

The 'mode of delivery' was 'spontaneous vertex'. Searching for this on the web has only told me that it was a normal delivery. Can anyone tell me what this term actually means though?

While I am here I would also be interested to know what CCT stands for and means as this was apparently the delivery of the placenta.

Hope someone can help me out, I am just one of those people who likes to understand everything and this is really bugging me!

[lal123]

spontaneous - means you didn't need medical intervention to get you started, vertex refers to the presentation of the baby - i.e head first

CCT - not sure

[lal123]

CCT here!

[doulalc]

Mode of delivery is how baby was delivered....in this case spontaneous vertex would be head down, without assistance....most babies are born this way...

CCT for the placenta means it was delivered with what is called controlled cord traction. You may or may not have noticed if the midwife's hand was applying pressure on your uterus as you were delivering the placenta....placenta detaches, while traction is on the cord, pressure from above is also used to help with the delivery.

[CookieMonster2]

Thanks for the quick responses folks. How confusing to use the term 'vertex' to mean head down when other terminology is used for the position of the baby during pregnancy.

I don't really remember much about the placenta being delivered, I was holding a baby by then :-) I did have the injection to speed up the delivery of it though.

[mags98]

The reason vertex is used is to be more specific. Cephalic is used during pregnancy to mean 'head down' rather than breech or transverse.

But cephalic doesn't specify which bit of the head was presenting - usually it is the vertex (it top of the head) but it could also be the face, the brow etc. So it is just a more specific way of saying it.

It means it was basically normal!