Low heart rate in newborn

[Rebi]

My sil had a baby 3 days ago. He has been kept in the neo-natal unit ever since - tomorrow he will hopefully be moved to the non-intensive section. They have been told that he has a low heart rate. He was born by emergency c-section after a 24 hour labour. She did not get to see him for 12 hours after he was born. He was 8lb at birth. Don't know what his Agpar score was. She is possibly been sent home tomorrow without him.

Does anyone know what would cause this. They don't seem to being told anything and I don't think they know what to ask. I have googled and the only thing I can see is some sort of congenital heart problem - they haven't been told anything like this. It all just seems a bit strange to my dh and me. Any thoughts or experience?

Many thanks.

I don't have any experience of this but why should she be sent home? Is she able to breast feed at all? Can she speak to the head of midwifery and be allowed to stay?

Many baby units would make her stay for 5 days after a CS anyway so it would be pretty poor practice to send her home whilst her baby was there.

I don't know anything about the heart rate though, sorry.

I don't know much about the heartrate, but you can bet I wouldn't be going home without my baby 3 days post section.

gosh thank you for such quick replies. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think the whole thing is so so strange. How my sil won't get pnd is hard to imagine. I just don't think they are able to stick up for themselves. I wish I could go in and ask some questions from the medics. I am just at a lost.

It's very hard with paeds and NICU nurses. Trust me. I have seen strong people crumble.

I do strongly feel that she should ask to stay with her baby though. If I find out anything at all I'll let you know. Hopefully one of our resident mws will come along with some answers/suggestions for you.

Thank you MarsLady - it is really heartbreaking to see them go through this and be so helpless. If I could go in there and kick some a** and find out what was going on, I would.

Is she BFing? If she is they have a duty to help her which includes her staying close by.

My DS2 was born at home (very fast birth and he came out looking completely purple) - the day after my local GP came round to check him over and said he had a low heart rate, so we were taken into hospital.

He had all sorts of checks, scans (CT scan, chest scan, ultrasound) and was given intravenous antibiotics. After two full days of checks they could find nothing wrong and we were allowed home.

It was scary and worrying at the time, but he was totally fine and we have never had any related problems since.

I really hope this is the case with your SIL's baby. Keeping my fingers crossed for you all.x

Gosh MrsWednesday that is great to hear. Fingers crossed that the outcome will be as good. It must have been very frightening for you at the time. Many thanks for sharing your experience, it is much appreciated.

I do wonder how things will go if my sil is breastfeeding and is sent home. My dh is collecting his db tonight from the hospital, so he is going to try and find out what exactly they have been told and suggest to him that may they should push for sil to stay longer. I do know that there is a huge level of births expected this month at this hospital, so they are possibly rushing everyone out for this reason.

Not sure if it's relevant or not but DS2 and I were put in our own room on a children's ward, rather than staying on the post-natal ward. I was breast-feeding too - would definitely be worth stressing this point to everyone involved.

All the very best to you and your family.

My Child has the same thing with low heart rate, seems to be okay although it while sleeping that it happens. How's your child now? Of what I've studied it's called Bradycardia... Although this post is old, thought I'd share :)