cord wrapped around neck twice - complications

[Palmwoods]

does anyone know of any complications from a baby being born with the cord around its neck twice?

But, the cord being around her neck did cause fetal distress. So, the distress was what sent me for a crash section.

If the cord is wrapped tightly or tie in a knot it can indeed be very serious. When my neice was born, the umbilical cord was tied in a tight knot (but not wraped around her) and as she came out and the ostetrician "caught" her his exact words were "Shit! That was lucky." Of course a loos know wouldn't be so serious and probably the know tighened as she was born and so was not a tight knot for ver long.

I personally know a baby born at home, unattended birth, with a true knot in the cord. That means a knot just like you would get if you tied up a piece of string, not just a tangle, if that makes sense. It stands to reason physiologically that the knot had to have been there for a long time as a full term baby would not be able to move in such a way as to knot it's own cord. Anyway when the OB saw it (he turned up later) he smiled and said "wow, they are very rare". So perhaps it's all a matter of perspective?

Not suggesting that your sisters OB was wrong, or that the baby was not in distress, but perhaps he had not seen many knotted cords and so immediately assumed it was the knot that had caused the distress. Perhaps it was something else entirely that had caused the fetal distress, lots of things can do this.

DS1 was born with cord round his neck twice and there was also a knot in it (had no idea that was rare), he had an Apgar score of 2 at 1min and 9 at 5mins, he had to be resuscitated....he is absolutely fine, a bright, chatty and energetic 3year old.

Eluesis perhaps there was a bit of cord compression going on, cords can get trapped between baby and pelvis for example. Or perhaps the distress was because she was trying to be born but the cord entanglement was preventing descent. I am not saying that cords around necks are never an issue, but just that most people think "cord around neck = strangled baby" and that's not necessarily the case. Also that it's very common.

The distressed baby was my DD, not the one with a knot. My DD was literally suspended by the cord because it wrapped around so many times there was not enough cord left for her head to come down and rest on my pelvis -- never mind engage. She did go into distress because the cord was around her neck. So when I was induced it pushed her down, cord tightened, blodd supply restricted, and hear rate dropped. This is what the surgeon told me the next day after the emergency section.

Of course some babies come out just fine with the cord round their neck. Just depends how tight it is... and probably other factors of which I'm not aware.

But sometimes the cord around the neck is dangerous, or even fatal. Sometimes.

Mine was pretty much like yours eleusis. I was induced and 2 midwives had to push down on my stomach to get him into my pelvis whilst the doctor broke my waters. His heartbeat dipped slightly every contraction after that. They were taking blood samples from his head which were ok at first and then getting dangerously low as the contractions got stronger, i had to push him out at 8 cms.Luckily this only took 3 mins. His cord was wrapped tightly round his neck again and again, they couldn't pull it over his head as there was no slack and he had to be rolled out of it. They had to resucitate him and rub him vigrously to get him to cry.

mrsmalambus-i automatically though it was beacuse of the cord that he was in distress and that is what the doctors and midwives led me to believe. What other causes are there for fetal distress do you know?

Reading some of this thread, I'm wondering about the link between 'restless' babies and this sort of birth issue - it brings to mind what several people have reported to me, that their babies were dreadfully unsettled (for whatever reason, I don't know if they had birth problems) and after visiting an osteopath, they were blissful sleepers.
Makes me wonder if there is something in it, as I imagine having the cord round the neck might actually do something subtle to the spine/ neck area? Just a thought...

BTW DS (4) was very restless as well, I didn't know about osteopathy then, but he did have the cord round once.

I am of the belief that for my babies, unsettledness is due to temperament, rather than birth issues.

Dd, induced and born by crash section due to distress, cord wrapped around neck - anxious, dreadful sleeper.

Ds, born by elective section pre-labour - anxious, horrendous sleeper.

Both had high apgars at birth.

Palmswood, just to let you know, dd 3.8 is now a great sleeper- she just needed time to grow into herself IKYWIM. Not the most chilled pre-schooler, bsut persistent, spunky, and very cuddly. there is hope hth

My dd had her cord round her neck twice.
Emergency section for distress.

Now - she is also a bad sleeper, but she was angelic as a newborn. She is a bit over 5 months and gets immensely frustrated with things she can't do.

I too think it's temperament - but I hugely empathise with wanting to understand why you are so tired. I think I'm losing my memory I'm so tired! Here's hoping with you it's going to get a bit better.

Palmwoods, my brother was born at home with the cord round his neck and was actually a blue/purple colour. He had no medical complications and afaik was a good sleeper,

Over 35 years later he is still fine!

DS had cord twice round his neck - I was taken for an emergency c -section when his heartrate dropped. He was very blue and floppy when delivered (one of the midwives later told me she was in tears having recently had a baby herself). He stayed in SCBU overnight and then was allowed to be with me. He cried when put down except when asleep - so for the first six weeks I carried him about during the day, passed him to DH when he arrived home so I could produce a cooked meal. He then accepted being put in a bouncy chair and later turned into the most placid, sunny baby you could wish for but can still become over-anxious at times - more so than DD who was a planned c-section.

my ds1 had it round his neck my ds2 had it wrapped around his body and ds3 had managed to go round and through his and madea perfect knot! Strangly though my 3 dds never ad any probs with theirs!

My ds1 had the cord wrapped around his shoulders causing his heart to dip during labour. Was quite scary seeing the midwive's faces near the end as his heart rate went really low, had to get the dr in and I was all ready in stirrups and everything for him to be helped out but I had one last contraction and pushed him out.

My dd2 was born at home, in a planned water birth, with the cord round her neck twice. No complications, apgar 9, then 10. My waters never broke with her either.

I do believe - yes the cord around the neck can cause fetal distress if wound round many times, and/or there is cord compression, or the baby cannot descend because of a short/tangled cord. But there might be other reasons too - hypotonic contractions (sometimes the result of being induced), "purple" pushing i.e taking a deep breath and holding it while pushing forcefully, the mother being on her back affecting blood supply to the baby, cord compression caused by the mother's position, lots of reasons. One other observation is that if there is no fetal monitoring going on, you would not know until baby was born - and if you then saw a wrapped cord you'd simply unwrap it (there is a maneouvre known as somersaulting which can help in difficult cases) and ideally leave the cord uncut and unclamped so that the baby gets its full complement of oxygenated blood from the placenta. There is a school of thought that says early cord clamping/cutting is a major cause of respiratory distress in newborns.

you are full of execellent knowledge mrsmulambas!!

My ds4's birth was induced at what they thought was 40 weeks. They broke my waters (not easily) and then set the drip up. contractions started and once established their plans were to turn the drip off and let things go naturally, however the contractions stopped everytime. When he was born hours and hours and hours and hours later they said he wasn't ready. No eyebrows no eyelashes, no sucking reflex...absolutely caked in vernix. So maybe the induced labour was to blame rather than the cord saga.

Idobelieve - sadly, a very common scenario methinks.

How did things pan out in the end?
Do you feel that the cord issue affected him long term?