Scarred baby following forceps delivery.

[millymoomoo]

I am new to Mumsnet and have never used a forum such as this before, so please bear with me if I'm not making much sense! (Also have clingy, teething seven-month-old on my lap!) I have been amazed by the vast array of subjects and experiences shared on Mumsnet and noticed a recent ?'thread'(!) about forceps deliveries. My baby was delivered by forceps - with the usual barbarity - and consequently has a number of scars over her head and face. Most will fade, I imagine, but she has an obvious dent on her cheekbone that will be permenent. I wonder if anybody else has had a similar experience? The paediatrician who saw my baby said she'd had to suture wounds to newborns inflicted from forceps in the past... My baby is still absolutely beautiful despite her arrival into the world!

Haven't read the whole thread, but thought I'd add my tuppence anyway...

Was reading Michel Odent's book 'The Caesarean' a while ago and he seems to feel that births should either be a 'normal' unassisted vaginal birth or - if a problem is detected (and this should be done early) - a Caesarean. He says that, in his opinion, some procedures (ventouse, forceps) should be consigned to the museum. Amusingly, he claims not to have used forceps since February 1962.

Odent reckons they should be consigned to museums... says it all, really.

That's really interesting RedZuleika. It was the fear of forceps or ventouse that made me request an elective c section.

I had an emergency Caesarean, although they did want to try ventouse first. My gut feeling was that this was a mistake - but did feel some pressure to consent. As it happened, there was no way she was coming out vaginally at all.

I always wondered why Martin Sheen (as President Bartlett) flipped his jacket on over his head - and just thought that it was meant to be a character quirk. Then I read that he has limited lateral movement in one arm due to nerve damage - crushed by forceps during delivery. And apparently this arm is shorter than the other.

My god this thread is making me feel ill for all the poor babies and mothers. My son was born with forceps too but I wish I knew then what I knew now. Infact most hospital births end up with forceps etc because they interfere so much and also the epidural increases the need for forceps.

This time around (in 4 weeks) I am having a homebirth with no epidural where I will be in control and there will be no forceps.
I totally blame the hospital for my sons birth as needing forceps etc as they basically convinced me to have an epidural then I had to lie flat on my back. When we all know gravity does the trick.

For all those mums to be do your research such a Sheila Kitzinger.

my little 1 is 10 wks old and she has a purple markon the right side of her cheek which has also left an indent from the forceps,she also had a ventuose and im sure this combined with 2 failed and 1 successful epidural made her a lazy breastfeeder! she 2 wouldnt feed and would fall asleep once on the breast so after 6 days of expressing and syringing the b'feeding was cracked. As for insensitive hospitals i dont think its that they are insensitive i think they are under staffed.
there were 4 midwifes to 24 of us and i was in agony with my tear and episiotomy and struggling with b'feeding. it was my Dr that was insensitive when my stitches fell out.
Anyway enough of my going on.

Hi all,new mumsnetter here.Am in floods having just read all your birth accounts and my heart goes out to you all..has brought my little one's entry into the world flooding back.Had to have an emergency section(pleaded for one in the end) after 57 hrs labour and had been at 2cm for 40 hrs.The silence during the most terrifying experience of my life is what haunts me most and hearing someone say repeatedly saying oh no no no.It seemed to go on for a horrendously long time-eventually I was aware that they had lifted my baby from me-there was no sound ,no cry,no words of reassurance.I presumed my ds was dead.
After an age-nobody explained what was going on or why they had taken him,I was told he had been badly wedged in my pelvis with the cord around his neck four times.They had had to use forceps with considerable force to yank him from me.It had been a code six.I had never even heard of forceps with a caesar.The damage to his face and head was shocking and he cried non stop for a fortnight until I took him to a cranial osteopath and then gradually things began to improve.The whole experience has made me fearful of having another,I dont know if I will be able to overcome that fear.
P.s....ds is simply beautiful......big hugs to all xxx

cjmumto2 - most hospital biths end up being assisted? Are you sure? And if you read the OP, she started to have a home birth, and was transferred to hospital when things went wrong.

Good luck with your next delivery. My ds was yanked out, dd came out on her own (well, my uterus may have had something to do with it!). Both were born in hospital. I hope it goes well for you too.

My heart goes out to each and every one of you and your precious babies. Ds was not a forceps delivery, but he was an emergency section after 36 hours and I was greatly traumatized by the whole experience. I can only try to imagine what it would have been like if they had used forceps as well. I am mainly posting to talk about PN PTSD. It sounds like many of you are still dealing with the trauma of your deliveries - and rightly so! They were horrific and you were treated badly. I suffered for 6 months before I finally reached out for treatment and it has been a very long road of recovery. Zoloft helped with the depression side of things, but not the flashbacks or the nightmares. I finally found a lovely female therapist and am still working with her doing CBT (cognitive behavior therapy). It has made a tremendous difference in my life - and that of my family, as my problems affected all of us to some degree. I know it has been posted earlier but the \link(www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/\birth trauma association} was a huge help. Also the TABS group in New Zealand has some good information. I have participated in a study on the anniversary of birth trauma which was a very healing experience for me.

Last but not least, I have finally felt mentally and emotionally well enough to try a second pregnancy and am in my second trimester. I have only had one flashback experience to date and managed to get myself under control fairly soon. This birth will be a scheduled section at 38 weeks. My OB doesn't want to take any chance of me going into labour, and, reading about forceps and c-sections, I am hoping this will also mean no chance for baby's head to get engaged.

birth trauma association link

Thank you to everybody who has contributed to this posting. I, like many others here, have had to re-read so many people's experiences as they were just too horrifying to comprehend first time around.
To all of you who are pregnant - congratulations! I have heard many accounts where labour was much more straightforward second time around. As mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to experience half my labour at home and am certain that helped me a great deal. I know that by the time I transferred to hospital there was no way I was able to have my baby naturally, so was maybe able to come to terms with what followed more easily. Also, at home, I had a midwife who I felt really comfortable with. It may sound strange, but if I'd been able to give birth to my baby at home I think it would have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience throughout. I am so lucky that half my labour was totally positive.

The chance of a normal delivery after forceps or ventouse is 80%. If I have another baby I will not be having forceps or ventouse under any circumstances.

Another interesting fact from the guidelines is in 1 study, 50% of women who had forceps/ventouse had decided 3 years later not to have another child, with half of those citing the reason as fear of childbirth.

Pants5 - I can assure you that the staff I had were insensitive/cruel/incompetent. I was refused all pain relief from 2-10 cm by a midwife who stood for 2 hours watching me scream in agony and beg over and over for G&A. He refused to check my cervix and refused to believe I was in labour, even when I started pushing. Another midwife refused me even a bath and lied, she told me I couldn't have one as my waters had broken (not true). And she refused G&A as it is "addictive".

The doctor used forceps with baby number 3. I was not told before, I just felt that baby was coming out (at last!). Since baby had the cord around the torax and neck, was quite weak. He recovered soon, thanks God. He had a little mark just for a few days. No more babies, please. Or I'll go for a cesarean.

This is all very useful. I'm currently pregnant with my first and whilst I would have liked a "natural" labour - that is not really possible. Due to a long term back injury the options I have been given are a) a caesarian or b) labour but with a passive 2nd stage, where I'm given drugs (an epidural?) to stop me pushing altogether and instead they use forceps. I completely understand that in any labour there is always the risk of forceps - and that's fine (I know they can be lifesavers!) - but it really doesn't seem to be an appealing option as a "plan A" birth plan! It looks highly likely that I'm going to be following my neurosurgeon's advice and going for the c-section. A lot of these stories have reinforced that view!

A wise decision, imo, wicks. Plan B sounds more than a little scary!

Hi wicks

I'm sure whatever you decide will be for the best, but I just wanted to quickly make the point - even though I'm sure you already know this - that permanent damage via forceps is rare. Yes it happens and the damage is too varying degrees as this thread illustrates, but as this thread is concerning the really bad stories, I think it's easy to read it and be left with a perception that these horrible things are more common than they actually are. I think the rate for assisted deliveries is 10%. Forceps and ventuse make up this percentage and ventuse is in the majority. Out of that small percentage left there are very few babies and mums left with permanent damage. (I got this figure via babyworld .co.uk).

I just felt like I aught to try and put things in perspective having contributed to this thread so much.

Good luck with your next labour! x x x

millymoomoo and MumToBen

I'm so sorry to hear all these terrible stories.
However there was one thing that shocked me the greatest - HOW can they leave you with an unstitched episotomy???????? An episotomy is when they have cut YOU. I tore and out of all my labour and birth - the stitches were the sorest part! Would have been so much more painful however to be forgotten to be stiched up? How can they get away with that?

Stefallie - a good question. The doctors have been silent on this subject. My wound was measured at 2cm by 2cm i.e. a massive open wound. It was horrific. I could barely walk or sit down. I remember one night in hospital my son was crying at night. It took me 10 minutes to get out of bed, as moving an inch was agony. The first 2 weeks were the worst. They wouldn't give me painkillers, so my husband brought in some tablets I had at home.

How could they get away with that? Because they are incompetent and uncaring and it is almost impossible to sue them unless I win the lottery.

It is still sore now (18 months on) and I think it will be sore for the rest of my life.

MumToBen

I think its terrible that they can get away with it. God for me it was painful with the stitches. To not have had them would have been awful! My heart goes out to you. So they still havent repaired it - so it has healed as an open wound? If I was you I would be recommending to people that you meet not to go to that hospital. Sometimes medical intervention can be the worst thing for you and your baby. However I know that at times they are there for the right reason. I hope you and your son both are well for the future.

The wound did get smaller over time and started to close. When it got to a smaller wound it just scarred over, leaving me with a thick, wide scar.

The worst thing of all was that I was told by the head of the delivery suite that if they had managed my delivery properly I wouldn't have needed a ventouse / forceps delivery. That is why I am not pleased about the outcome.