shoulder dystocia. baby born blue. feeling scared. anyone been here?

[happybutscared]

Have namechanged for this as have never posted about anything quite so personal or scary before...

DS2 born on Friday. Induced at 40+10 due to high BP.

He got stuck, and was eventually delivered with the help of second midwife and team of doctors. But he was blue on birth.

The doctor at the time said not to worry. His heartrate had been monitired throughout the birth, and had been good. He needed oxygen, but his colour returned quickly (something about 6? "somethings" needed to re-start respiration). This reassured me, and I didn't think about it afterwards.

But DH has just said he is worried. DH isn't someone that worries about stuff. Isn't dramatic. But he says that he doesn't know how long it was between the head being delivered and the body being delivered (and consequent resuscitation)... and this is what matters.

I remember feeling the head was out. I remember being told to reeeeally push. I remember another midwife being there and maybe one more push. Then a shout of "shoulder"... doctors everywhere... DS born.... taken away and resuscitated.

I'm sure it was really quick. But now I'm in a bit of a dark place. How likely is he to have suffered brain damage? I know it's an unanswerable question, really. But I'm just in shock here.

Dunno what I'm asking really. Reassurance? Knowledge? Experience? Anyone?...

Congratulations on the birth of your DS
Sorry you ahve both been through such a worrying time. TBH it sounds like you are both still in shock. Is he still in hospital? In special care?
I ahve no special knowledge, but my friend had a crash CS, during which the placenta was nicked and the baby was starved of oxygen for quite a while. They had a lot of worry about brain damage, but over a year on now and everything is fine- the baby is doing everything on time and lots early.

Sorry, what I suppose I was saying is if he is still in hospital you should ask to talk to your consultant as soon as possible to see what they say. It sounds to me as though they believe the "he's fine" information has made its way to you, when in fact it hasn't.

thanks :)
He was never in special care, but we did stay in hospital for a few days.
They checked everything they could as he was "jittery" for a while.
blood sugar is okay, and he's feeding fine (a relief after struggling to BF DS1).

...to be honest, I wasn't in shock until about half an hour ago. I was just overjoyed and loving being a second time mum. But now I am in total shock and disbelief. Can't believe I hadn't even considered this.

But thanks for the story of your friend. I need reassurance, I think... which is silly really as we'll just have to wait and see. And I just love him so much, whatever happens... just shocked...

This happened with ds he wasn't breathing when he came out and he stopped breathing a couple more times in the first few minutes after he was born.

TBH the whole thing was a blur I didn't know he had become stuck or not breathing until he was safe and well in my arms.

All I can say is he is absolutely fine now and just like you average toddler!

I think it would really help you to go through it with your midwife.

Bumping this for you, a friend of mine has this with her dd, who is fine you'll be relieved to hear (is now teenaged!) friend however was on a rubber ring for weeks, so hope your not. Sure someone with more clinical info will be along shortly though.

I had a VERY similar experience. After birth of DD I didnt hear a cry for what seemed like an age. I was then shown dd before she was whisked away for checks and I was sent to surgery (for repair work) DD is now 18 months and the light of my life! The only damage is my sadness that I was not there for dd straight after birth and that I was not able to give her her first feed.

IIRC babies are all born a bit blue. Please dont worry in those circs you would have been told if there was a risk of brain damage.

I hope I can help, DS3 born after a very long everything go wrong labour, his head was really to big to come out with hindsight, but anyway. He finally entered the birth canal, got a bit stuck and his heart rate dropped to next to nothing. Shouts of push when I wasn't contracting just get him out quick vibes. He was born a nasty purple/white colour and didn't breathe for what felt like a very long time. In the end he was whisked away and resuscitated with a mask and some oxygen. Apagar 5 immediately and 8 I think at 10 mins(?).

The drs didn't appear bothered and I was more concerned about downes as he was high risk. Anyway by the time I started to worry about it he was fine, DCous (paediatrician) says you have about 5 mins lee way at that stage, which seems like forever to me. So, DS3 now 3.5 and dear goodness if he was brain damaged at birth then he would have been in Mensa by two, he has hit every milestone just a little bit early and is already bilingual and able to swim unaided. I would imagine if your Ds had his heart rate monitored and it was good there should be little to worry about now (hah, like there's little to worry about with a newborn....)

I would be interested in what you mean by jittery though as ds was very "jumpy" in the days after his birth in that I remember he would have a sudden shiver or jump alot

oh thanks for making me laugh at least, boris! yes... rubber ring would be helpful right now! :)

sounds familiar, connor. In my head, it all happened at the same time! The pushing, the head being stuck, the midwife, the doctors... so I have no idea of timescale.

But you're right. I need to talk this through with midwife. I hadn't before, just because I didn't think I had to.

thanks everyone for getting back to me so quickly. I feel slightly better now.

This happened with my DS.

He is now an exceptionally bright 9 year old.

I think it is extremely unlikely that your baby would have suffered brain damage.

You have just joined that wonderful world of motherhood, worrying about everything.

Talk to your MW to put your mind at rest.

Congratulations

HappyButScared - congrats on your son.

Firstly its quite normal for babies to be a bit blue immediatly after delivery even without a shoulder dystocia. While the medics were getting him out your son would still have been getting oxygenated blood via the umbilical cord. As a general guide you have about 6 minutes from the birth of the head before you need to deliver the rest of the body.

It sounded like he needed inflation breaths to get him breathing but that he responded to that well and didn't need a lot of intervention to get him going.

Do you know if a sample of blood was taken from the cord after delivery? They may well have done this to check the PH levels which is a good indicator of how well the baby coped with everything. It may be worth ringing the hospital to ask someone to meet you for a debrief and they could look at this as well as talk you through what happened.

thanks, only. I did wonder if they would have said something if there was a risk? that's my hope...

lostinwales, wow! that sounds scary! Am so glad everything is okay. And thanks for reassuring story. DS Apgar was on 3 immediately after birth :( but I think that was also due to arms being a bit slow to get moving.

connor they think the jittery-ness (?!) was just down to him being in pain from shoulder and subsequent lack of sleep. His arms kind of shook a bit sometimes, and he was very irritable.

By the way... your DC all sound gorgeous! Just reading about them has made me feel better. :) thanks so much...

Congratulations,
My 1st daughter was born at 40wks, she is my 3rd dc and labour went well until the pushing stage when she did not move,attemptswere made by changing position etc but nothing worked, during this it was observed she had also become blue. My fantastic midwife had to cut me to allow her to place her hand inside and turn her to release her shoulder.

Her initial agpare score was 1 and the crash team worked for over ten minutes to get her breathing, she was then transferred to scbu and knocked out again for 72hrs to allow her brain to recover.

We were then able to take her home a week later. Whilst in scbu we were warned thatonly time would tell if damage had been and we would need regular outpatient appointments.

At her first appointment the pead was really happy and told us to trust our instincts, if we felt there was an issues to phone and make
an appointment to see him, if we hadn't within a year he would discharge her. We never made an appointment.

At six months she was crawling,at 9months cruising and by a year running. At 18 months was toilet trained and by two talking constantly. She started reception in September and doing really well.

Babies are very resiliant, as hard as it is try not to worry and if you want to talk more just shout or message me.

It never did occur to me to be worried about this to be honest. I was in shock for quite some time after (still am a bit really).

The way I think of the birth is that it went as wrong as it could go without it resulting in permanent damage to one of us or the other (THANK GOD for epidurals!!!!)

DD is on or ahead of milestones and is about as cheeky as they come.

Did you see the apgar scores? If they were anything to worry about you would have been told. With this in mind I would say you are worrying without cause.

As for the rubber ring situation may I suggest that you dont go to a catholic wedding 2 weeks after the birth with not so much as a cushion to sit on (Pews are NOT comfy!!)

Lynli, I know you're talking sense! :) and I am a worryer anyway! But DH isn't, which is why I am reeling a bit here... I guess this is our lot as mothers. We just keep on keep on worrying!!

VivaLeBeaver thanks :)
That's the bit we're worrying about. DH has read that the time when his head was delivered, but his body wasn't, the umbilical cord will have been squeezed so much it wasn't delivering oxygen. We are both wracking our brains trying to think how long that was. Obviously this is pointless! But that was our worry....

Yes, although he needed oxygen, he apparently didn't need too much to get him going. I guess this is good :)

I think there is no doubt that we need to talk to someone in more detail. I know they hae much more detailed notes at the hospital than we have at home, so although my midwife can generally reassure me, we need to know specifics, don't we?

Don't know how I go about requesting this, though. Guess that's what I ask the midwife when I see her!!

My ds1 was born not breathing after getting stuck. He was eventually born with the aid of a ventouse (dp says the only reason I didn't have a CS was because by the time the dr's realised it had all gone tits up it would have takened too long to set up for the CS). Anyway after a couple of failed attempts with the ventouse and things getting more frantic, the dr yanked so hard that although ds1's head came partially out the ventouse came on, and there was more panic as they quickly reattached it and got the rest of him out asap.

He was lifted onto my chest and then quickly whipped off and worked on by the peadeatric crash team. The whole room was deadly silently I just remember everyone standing there watching the team working on him and my DM crying. I'm not sure how long it took for him to start breathing but it was 1-2 mins, and thinking back to it when the pead dr lifted him off me ds1 looked awful - bluey, purple and floppy.

Ds1 is now 5 and absolutely fine. He has never seemed to have had any problems linked to his birth. He reached all milestones either when expected or slightly early.

I never took them up on it, but wished I had -you may like to contact the Birth Trauma Association, or you can contact your hospital and ask for a midwife to go through your records with you to explain things.

I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. I guess the only thing you can do is keep a close eye on your ds (which I'm sure you are doing anyway ) and if you have worries bring them to the attention of your GP.

Insanity - you brought a tear to my eye. Congratulations on your DD.

Happy - What was the second apgar. Thes the most telling one

I really don't think the umbilical cord will have been squeezed that much to totally prevent blood flow - if that true you wouldn't have 5-7 mins but less than one min to get the baby out I'd have thought. The umbilical cord isn't been pressed against a hard surface or bony part of the body at this point so I just can't see it being squished that much.

This happened to me with my 4th child, I couldn't believe it after 3 straight forward deliveries.
All I can say is 4 months on my baby is just fine as far as I know and we've bonded beautifully but I don't like to look at the newborn photo's of his poor little face.
Congratulations on your new baby :)

I forgot to add that my DP is also not a "worrier", but he did tell me several years after ds1's birth that there was a point where it seemed like one of us wasn't going to make it and that it wasn't the baby the dr's were going to focus on.

That really shook me for a while. I was quite out of it and didn't really realise quite how bad things could have been.

You are all so wonderful, thanks! I'm so glad I posted now. I did hesitate, but it's the best thing I could've done.

And only, you have just made me giggle for a second time!!

Insanity... I cannot believe what you went through. You must be incredibly strong. Am so glad all is okay now.

thanks also for the advice, tutu. So much here to think about and look into.

thanks, everyone for quick replies. Feel slightly less shocked and numb now.

well glad I made you laugh and hope it didn't hurt too much

STOP googling SD immediately!!!!! you only see the worst cases. It is like googling a sore throat and coming away convinced you have the plague!

Really, honestly, truely time stops when you are there. IF it had been a length of time to have been concerned about it would have felt like a fortnight!

Another one here who's baby had an initial APGAR of 1 - blue, limp, all very worrying. She went to SCBU. Now at 3 years old she runs rings around us and is extremely bright.

That's what I would've thought, too Viva. I guess that's where Google is a dangerous tool. Too much information with too little medical knowledge....

only... second apgar score was 9, i think?? definitely higher, anyway.

Yep, tutu... I actually think that's partly why I'm in shock. The fact that DH even admitted that he was worried about this, let alone that he WAS worrying about it. I wasn't really aware of anything that was going on. Just being told to push, and it not doing much.

thanks, mama :) the bonding thing is a definite! i can't take my eyes off him... except when DS1 is around, then I have to keep eyes on both of them. I'm so so happy. That's all I was feeling until this shock came from nowhere.