my friend split from her boyfriend and i was her birthing partner, the birth was not entirely trouble free and wonder if any of you would be good enough to read through this and give me your thoughts, its long and as well as i can remember it,
her waters broke at approx 9.20pm on thursday 21st febuary, due date given was 1st march but there was some confusion over dates.
hospital was phoned and we were told to come straight up, showed to a delivery room and midwife started taking details, blood pressure etc, hooked her up to a monitor to get a trace of the heartbeat, possibly had an internal exam?,
her pad was inspected and seen to have meconium stained liqor (kind of lime greenish colour) midwife said the meconium looked very diluted and baby probably wouldnt have inhaled any but said because of the staining she wouldnt be allowed back home.
said that the ward was very busy and she might be slotted in but may have to wait till the morning to "get started"
told to keep active to encourage contractions, she hadnt had very many so far.
around 4am were finally told that it would be first thing in the morning before they would get labour started so got a few hours sleep
after breakfast obs were done and an internal, found to be 1-2 cm dilated? although this might have been what they said the night before i just cant rightly recall,
syntocin drip was started around 1030am?, contractions started slowly and soon progressed to regular and powerful ones needing gas and air around 1245pm?,
midwife could feel the head but thought there was a lip of cervix so asked in another (midwife?) for a second opinion, she felt and said there wasnt, that it was something else (unheard) and left, monitor was showing heartbeat dipping right down with contractions
after several pushes the midwife said the cord was round the neck, not sure if this was while head was still inside or not but when head appeared it was very dark blue/grey and seemed to get "stuck" for what seemed like ages although was probably only a few minutes no more than 5, during which midwife was sticking a finger in and pulling the cord away from the babys neck which made his mouth open and "bubble" told me to press button for help and another midwife came in,
the monitor was switched off at some point and the baby was delivered at 1.27pm, his head was quite cone shaped and face was still really blue /grey and body white/normal from the neck down, quickly unwrapped and cut cord and got him over to the resuscitaid table rubbing him and trying to get him going and they had the oxygen nozzle near his nose, his chest was rising and falling but he didnt cry and appeared to be "grunting" his colour evened out after maybe 5/10 mins, another more superior nurse? came in and checked him over, i have no idea what the apgar scores were, midwives said he was just a bit "shocked"
they brung in an incubator and put him in it for an hour to observe him, we noticed his leg was very twitchy but after an hour or so they said he seemed ok and we got him out and dressed him and i noticed his left eye had bloodshot marks on it.
he had his first feed but was sick afterwards, during the night he had to be woken for his feed and wasnt really keeping anything down, when i went up to collect them around 11.30 am on saturday morning, they had just told her she wasnt getting home as planned as they wanted to keep an eye on the baby as he was still very twitchy and his face a bit jaundiced, still being sick, they also took some blood samples. he is also arching sometimes when being held,
she was on lithium for depression during the pregnancy and asked the night before the birth if she should take her tablets and was told yes, since looking it up most advice seems to suggest stopping it 24-48 hours before a planned labour due to the risk of thyroid and kidney toxicity, cyanosis, cardiac arrhythmias and hypertonicity in the newborn.
due to this and the cord round the neck and his colour at birth should i be prompting her to ask questions or would i be worrying her needlessly, surely the doctors would tell her if any of this was a problem?
my own son was born at 26 weeks so i have no idea what a full term labour should be like and how common it is for the cord to be round the neck etc