Clearing mucas from baby's airways immediately after birth

[JosephineClaire]

My SIL had a beautiful baby boy on Wednesday (so baby is 5 days old now) - midwife led-unit, a bit short-staffed (not sure if this was maybe something to do with it)

She mentioned that they didn't clear the mucas from the baby's airways when he was born (I presume she means with a little squeezy nasal aspirator?) and now he throws up/coughs yellowy mucas once/twice a day. She said she didn't think of it at the time, but now looking back, she remembers that they didn't check or use the nasal aspirator.

She also said they rushed the Apgar test and the scores were all wrong (i.e. they said he was a good pink colour when she said he was quite blue on top and very pale on bottom for the first half hour or so)
They also got his measurements wrong the first time round

So with this in mind, do you think we are supposed to actively ask them to clear mucas from the airways or write it in the birth plan (effectively giving them permission, should they need to document that you said yes)??

Or should this be standard?

Thanks

Never heard of or seen this being done.

None of my 3 ever had their airways cleared with a squeezy thing.

Is it something that do on those USA birth programmes? Think I've seen it on those.

Perhaps I'm mistaken then - it may not help that all the birth programmes I tend to see on Sky are American.

I thought they used one of these:
www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Nose-Clear-nasal-aspirators/dp/B000NG978M

Never seen one of those in my life and am on baby number four and been a birth partner a few times too!

Babies do this for a good week or so after birth anyway, whether their airways are cleared or not. The mucus is coming from their lungs/stomach so no amount of nasal clearance is going to stop it.

Mine have never had this done either although ive heard fron older family members they used to clear it from there nose and throat but stopped due to the risk of damaging there throat not sure how true this is though.

My dd used t cough the mucus up and make little gipping/choking noises i used to freeze stiff everytime it happend in the first few days lol

Nope - didn't have this and it wasn't something my MW raised/offered.

DD's breathing was fine from the start but she did cough up what seemed like a large quantity of mucous within a couple of minutes of her birth. MW said this was normal.

Perhaps it's something which is done only if the baby is having difficult breathing?

Coughing/sneezing out mucus is totally normal - if baby is breathing properly then clearing airways isn't necessary. Babies are quite capable of sneezing!

clearing the airways used to be routine practice until someone did some research and found that for a healthy baby it can be harmful.

APGAR scores - this will probably sound a little rude but unless your sister is a midwife she's not really in a position to judge - the APGAR gives a quick, straightforward assessment of a baby's wellbeing - if there was concern about your sister's baby the midwives would have taken action.

Snowsquonk don't worry about sounding rude :) I was just curious to hear what people thought, which is what these forums are great at doing. I'm sure you're right. And thanks everyone for commenting on the airways question, now I know not to bother adding it to my birth plan

Thanks all

One thing you can do with a mucasy baby is to lean them head slightly down to let some of it drain out naturally - as described in this story here (do a find on "mucus").