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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Ventouse Delivery - Long Term Effects

53 replies

mandy1967 · 16/05/2014 10:19

Hi All, I am hoping you might be able to help me or know another mum who might be able to provide some information. I have been doing a lot of research (when I can) over the last 13 years on the affects of Ventouse Delivery. My son was born this way in 2000. My health visitor at the time advised me after his delivery that he may be slow to crawl, slow to talk, walk, feed and may have learning difficulties or just generally be a bit slower than his peers. At the time I was not aware of any issue surrounding the way he was delivered, but it was only as the years passed that the Health Visitor's warning came to be true as each milestone was passed and he did not improve. My son is now 13 and every warning she provided me is my son. He is in a main stream school but has had a statement since 2010 and has constant TA assistance. Now I'm not saying that he wouldn't have been like this had his birth been less traumatic, but doing the research I have and reading of other peoples experiences it seems there may be a link to this delivery method. In all other ways my son is great, polite, friendly, helpful, but very immature, concentration very poor and just generally a struggle for him to catch up. A recent review at the school had his reading as age 10! I would therefore be very grateful if you could let me know whether your teenage son/daughter sounds like my son and whether the delivery method was Ventouse. Many thanks.

OP posts:

lizhow14 · 26/07/2014 21:17

Hi,
Not had chance to read all comments so don't know if this has been mentioned but I don't believe a ventouse delivery per se will result in the difficulties you describe (I am a neonatal nurse and have never heard of a direct association), however they may be due to the circumstances surrounding why he was delivered this way....e.g. rush to get him out may suggest problems with foetal heart rate which may be result of period of lack of oxygen?
If I was you I would request to meet with an obstetrician/supervisor of midwives to fully go through your notes and to answer all of your questions. I would imagine there are too many variables for any research to make a link with ventouse delivery and long term developmental outcomes.
To note my daughter was born by ventouse and no issues.

MrsCK · 27/07/2014 07:17

I was born by ventouse in 1988. I hit my milestones fine went to uni...got a first etc so no cognitive impairment. However my mum is convinced that the reason I have epilepsy is due to the way in which I was born. There is no family history of epilepsy and seemingly it is unexplained. Mums convinced!! my consultant said there could be a link although he's not sure.

WanttoFindWorkLifeBalance · 27/07/2014 07:28

Had a child born by ventouse in 2007 - no potential issues were mentioned or ever have been since. No developmental issues but did have mild plagiocephaly - however third child who is v like him had that tendency too despite not being ventouse. Am amazed have never heard of this before.

BirdhouseInYourSoul · 27/07/2014 07:32

My DD was born by ventouse in 2001 and we were never warned about possible side effects. No one ever mentioned it at follow up appointments either. She is dyslexic but otherwise a normal healthy girl.

My DS was also born by ventouse in 2009 and he is fine too. Again, never had any warnings or questions about his birth and they were born within different health trusts.

weegiemum · 27/07/2014 07:45

I've never heard of any side effects of ventouse.

My dd1 was born by ventouse after a 37 hour back labour in early 2000. She weighed in at 9lb12oz. She crawled at about 10 months (I think), all other milestones were on cue, she didn't walk till almost 18 months but that's a family trait.

She's now 14. She's gorgeous - bright, articulate, outgoing and friendly. She has great relationships with family and friends. She's bilingual in English/Gaelic, in top groups for subjects at school, plays 2 musical instruments and in the school athletics/cross country team. She's, of course, a typical teenager, her room is a disgrace!! She's very artistic, years ahead of herself, and is hoping to do a junior theatre production scholarship applying next year, and eventually be a stage/TV set designer.

I really can't imagine that the ventouse was the cause of your son's issues, I've never heard of it. My dh is a GP who worked in obstetrics during his training - just asked, he's never heard of it either.

weegiemum · 27/07/2014 07:55

(Sorry for huge boast about my lovely dd! We had a massive teen-style fight with her last night but she crawled into our bed at 4am to apologise and is still wedged between us, fast asleep!)

grobagsforever · 27/07/2014 16:07

DD was ventouse in 2010 she has hit all milestones on time or early.

LittleBearPad · 27/07/2014 16:16

Dd was ventouse in 2012. She crawled at about nine months. Walked on her first birthday and was an early talker. She seems to be doing fine.

hmmmum · 28/07/2014 19:34

My daughter was born by ventouse and screamed a lot as a baby. She also couldn't nap for more than a very short period of time as she was very startled by noises - even just a cough or a laugh would wake her. She crawled at 12 months, walked at 15. Anyway we took her for cranial osteopathy at 12 months just to try it out, friends had recommended it when they saw how she cried a lot and struggled to nap etc. She started napping soooo much better straight away, cried less, and no longer jumped out her skin at every sudden noise, it was this overnight change.
I hadn't heard of ventouse being related to SN. Our daughter seems similar to other kids her age - more developed in some areas, less in others she's less interested in. She seems pretty bright.
Hope you get th answers you are looking for and wish you all the best.

MegMogandOwlToo · 28/07/2014 19:41

I haven't heard of this before.

DS(2) crawled at 7 months, walked independently at 10 months, was an early talker and has been assessed as having the ability of a 4-5 year old. I don't think ventouse affected him, apart from a sore head for a few days!

Verbena37 · 15/10/2014 12:31

Hi Mandy,
I was just trying to find some research on epilepsy and ventouse this morning and came across your post.

My 9yr old Ds was diagnosed with epilepsy a year last Jan and he morse I think about it, the more I think it was caused by Ventouse. However, there is very little research on this and his neurologist doesn't know of any significant correlations.

As a walking baby, he used to regularly bang his head on walls as though he had a sore head and now, he has ictal headaches most weeks. Although he has been seizure free for over a year, he is still feeling the effects of epileptic activity......ictal headaches after watching the whiteboard at school or watching screens etc....although he doesn't have seizures brought on by photosensitivity.

A a newborn, he couldn't sleep or lie on his back without crying so I put him to sleep on me or on his side. Then he had cranial osteopathy and it helped. He has recently been diagnosed with a Selective Eating Disorder, which he has had since weaning.

We are off for a check up with neurology this afternoon due to worrying behaviour and two recent suicide intent incidents.....tricky to work out if attention seeking or meaning to actually do it....

I believe his behaviour probs are linked to the hippocampal sclerosis they say he has on his left side. Such a massive topic to research and way beyond my psych/health diploma!

Alb1 · 15/10/2014 20:50

My baby was only delivered by ventouse 4 weeks ago so I obviously can't comment on milestones yet but I can say that my midwife and the consultant who delivered him both assured me that other than a headache the ventouse does not cause the baby any harm long or short term...

I apologise, I realise this isn't what you asked, just wanted to mention that this isn't something currently mentioned by hcp's in my experience, altho after reading this I will be quizzing the hv next week just to be sure...

Redling · 16/10/2014 00:55

My DS was Ventouse 8 weeks ago, he's a happy and chilled baby who is very alert and has no more than the usual issues with sleep etc. No one has said anything about Ventouse causing issues, and I am fairly confident because I was born with ventouse intervention 31 years ago and I have no special educational needs and never had any slowness/milestone issues, in fact my mother said I was far more chilled and easier as a child than my CS born brother. In fact when I was stressing to the Doctor after the birth about how 'it all went wrong' etc, he said that it was so common to deliver like that and they did instrumental deliveries every day.

mummy12015 · 23/05/2015 17:30

PLease advice me on how to get rid of the head deformity caused by ventouse delivery...many thanks

YouMakeMyHeartSmile · 23/05/2015 17:48

When was your baby born mummy? What sort of head deformity does he/she have? DD was born by ventouse 18 months ago, she had a very slight 'cone' head but it was gone by 24 hours old. As far as I am aware any effects on the shape of the head are temporary and will correct themselves.

StupidBloodyKindle · 23/05/2015 18:04

Hi Mandy
Two ventouse babies born in two different countries...no mention of any likely effects.
DC1 is now 13 and displays no traits other than typical teenage BS
DC2 is 4 and shows immaturity, lack of concentration and clumsiness but is only 4 so am keeping eye on her but have never linked it to ventouse nor would I.

imwithspud · 23/05/2015 19:43

PLease advice me on how to get rid of the head deformity caused by ventouse delivery...many thanks

How old is your LO? DC1 was born in 2012 via ventouse and had a 'cone head' tha gradually went down after a couple of days, I didn't need to do anything to correct it. If you're child is slightly older and you have concerns then it may be best speaking to a healthcare professional.

DC1 is now 2 and a half and is meeting milestones and is slightly ahead with speech. I was never told of any risks mentioned in the OP as a result of a ventouse delivery.

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 23/05/2015 19:55

I was a ventouse/forceps birth, extremely long labour, early 80s. I could be considered to be on the spectrum, ASD-wise. Not sure if this would have been the case anyway though, as I have a specific (& pretty useless) talent that could be considered savant, the ventouse probably couldn't have caused this?

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 23/05/2015 19:56

And I have an indented ridge across the back of my head. I can only assume it's from the birth?

toptomatoes · 23/05/2015 20:03

DS1 was ventouse delivery and the delivery method has never been commented on by any health professional and he's 8. He has always met or exceeded his milestones and I am not at all worried about his development.

LynetteScavo · 23/05/2015 20:12

DS1 had a ventouse delivery. I was warned to be gentle with him, as he may have a headache (as though I wasn't going to be gentle with my first newborn, lol!)

DS reached his milestones early...smiled at three weeks, proper laughing at 5 weeks, rolling over just before he was 4 months, walking at 11 months, started recognising numbers at 18 months, and recognised numbers to 20 by his second birthday, rhyming before he was 2, and reading familiar words such as Next and Gap, etc by 2.5.

When he was 4yo, we discovered he had poor eyesight, and the sight in one eye was so poor, it just hadn't developed. His eye was patched for two years, and he's now a +6 in that eye. Yes, I did wonder if the ventouse delivery had caused this. His optometrist told me that was absolutely not the case, though.

DS is also on autistic spectrum (Aspergers), Before he was diagnosed, I did attribute his behaviour to his difficult birth.

And it was a difficult birth, but without the ventouse DS1 and I would probably both have died.

I think there was a link recently between ventouse and autism, which I personally took no notice of. Just another stick for mothers to beat themselves with, if you ask me.

StupidBloodyKindle · 24/05/2015 13:05

telephone please tell us what your useless silent skill is...or pm me

I think, and you see this with anti-vaccination threads, we, as parents, look for causes to our children's behaviours and needs when, sometimes, the kids are who they are, without a known or underlying cause.
I could, for example, put my dc2's behaviour down to too much TV (and could well be right) or her clumsiness down to an undiagnosed eye problem (they cannot test her yet). I would think it reasonable that any oxygen deprivation during a complicated birth would be more likely to cause any future learning difficulties than the ventouse itself.

StupidBloodyKindle · 24/05/2015 13:06

specific not silent

Skiptonlass · 25/05/2015 15:49

I think perhaps this is a confounding error? We all look for patterns in the data we have, but sometimes we draw lines that aren't there.

A ventouse is not going to be used unless there's a issue with getting the baby out. There will be a greater number of babies with difficult births that had a degree of oxygen deprivation.

Thus, there will be a greater number of babies who needed intervention who had issues.

The real link is more likely to be the difficult delivery, not the ventouse itself, does that make sense? The ventouse won't cause issues, if used correctly, but the underlying situation (which prompted the use of the ventouse in the first place) might have.

slightlyconfused85 · 25/05/2015 20:34

Dd was ventouse in Nov 2012. She crawled at 7 months, walked at 11 months, talks like there's no tomorrow and potty trained on the early side! No issues, was
Never warned of any or noticed a thing.

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