Cord snapping during delivery of placenta

[WomanEmpire]

I had DC2 10 months ago and I've got a question which at the time, I didn't think to ask.
He was born with the cord around his neck but this was quickly rectified and when the MW pulled on the cord to deliver the placenta, the cord snapped at the base of the placenta.
The red button was pushed and another 2 midwives came in. DS was taken from me and given to DH and I had to push extremely hard and the MW manually removed it. I had a small PPH but all was fine after. The MW said she had never had this is on her 15 years and the placenta was enormous. Was I in danger? Has this happened to anyone else?
Overall was a pretty good induction, and after a very traumatic birth with DS1 it settled my anxieties, but this has played on my mind a bit!

Contact the hospital for a debrief as only they can answer your questions accurately and specifically to your birth.

This happened to me too op...i was taken to theatre straight away had a spinal anaesthetic and had the placenta manually scraped/pulled out. The worst thing was I lost the feeling in both legs for 12 hrs because of the anaesthetic so was bed bound and had to have a catheter

Cord snapping is not dangerous but does mean you are likely to require a manual removal of placenta which will likely take place in theatre under spinal. This therefore increases your risk of PPH and trauma to cervix and uterus

Not dangerous to the baby of his part of the cord was already clamped as he was already delivered but potentially dangerous to you, if the placenta hadn't fully detached from your uterus yet, as you basically had an unblocked channel pumping blood from your arteries through the placenta and out into nothing. It sounds like your team handled it well.

After my last birth my MW felt the cord tearing away as she delivered my placenta. I remember it all becoming suddenly very imperative to get placenta out asap (and thw attempted manual removal being 100x worse than childbirth) but it quickly detached itself before the OB and theatre team arrived. I guess the immediate risk is a serious pph from the torn vessels, then retained placenta, but it sounds like it was dealt with well

Oh this brings back memories of dd1's birth, she's 8 now.

The reason why the cord snapped for us was because it was only 15cm long (found this out in my maternity notes when pg with dd1). I too had a retained placenta. I was so high on g&a I was really relaxed when they mentioned theatre. They did give me oxytocin (?) so the placenta would come away on its own, but also ended with a manual removal with me on g&a iirc.

Oops, I just thank god 🙏🏼 Dd1 wasn't smothered in the birth canal as she flew out

This happened with my first. Cord wasn't around her neck but it snapped and the midwife went to put a catheter in. Apparently emptying my bladder would help. I refused and asked to just go to the toilet. She reluctantly agreed and went to get a bucket... All very glamorous. She held it under me and as I stood up the placenta just slid out and blood splashed everywhere! The midwives commented on its size and then ran off with the bucket. They came back and told me incredulously that it had weighed more than 3lbs. I shrugged and asked what they normally weighed. Response was that they didn't know because they didn't normally weigh them!

They weighed DS2's too! I'm afraid I beat you as it was nearly 4lb!
He was just under 7lb. Very bizarre

Mine also snapped and I ended up in theatre to have the retained placenta removed. It did pump blood out pretty efficiently but I wasn't too worried!

Agree with the 12 hour bit though, it was a pain.

Yikes!

The cord snapped for me as DS was delivered, the midwives commented on how short it was. DS’s cord was promptly clamped then they injected me with something to get the placenta out. Nothing else was mentioned about it.