Placenta delivery if the cord snaps.....

[lauraloola]

My friend gave birth 5 weeks ago and everything went brilliantly, no tears, fast labour, healthy baby.

But, once the injection for the placenta had been given she heard the midwife say 'oh shit' and then the next thing she knew was some doctor had his hand inside her and was pushing her stomach trying to grab the placenta.

A friend of ours had the same thing a few years ago and can not anymore children due to this.

Is this really the only way the placenta can be retrieved? Do cords snap often or is it due to it being pulled too hard??

cord snapped with my after giving birth to DD3......it snapped in such a way as the MW was pullingon it that it sprayed an arc across the room, hitting the ceiling and everyone in the room (bar me for some amazing reason.....altho, I don;t remember it getting me.

luckily for me tho the placenta was almost out as it snapped, so no major retrieval had to go on....thankgod as I had traumatic SPD die to doing the splits on a newly laid wooden floor in a glass of lemon squash kindly put down by DD2 while I was dishing up dinner!

not a fun experience.....(the cord snapping that is!)

I had a retained placenta with my DD back in 2003, I also felt the cord snap and the midwife swore under her breath. Anyway DD was born at 10:30am and I spent the next 4 hours waiting to go into theatre! Eventually I went into theatre and had the placenta manually removed which was horrific and really ruined the whole birth experience for me.

Second time around (in September) I was desperate to avoid this happening again. I saw the consultant who brushed me off and said it should all be fine so I did loads of research and decided to have a physiological third stage.

DS was born very quickly and the lovely midwife followed my birth plan to the letter, she left me to breastfeed for an hour but there was no sign of the placenta, By this time the midwife was getting twitchy, she said that they prefer to deliver it within an hour of birth. I spent the next half an hour pushing in various positions and had lost just under a pint of blood by the midwife's reckoning.

Eventually the midwife said that if I lost much more blood I would need a transfusion, which was something I really wanted to avoid because I donate blood regularly and knew that I wouldn't be able to give blood again if I'd had a transfusion, so I agreed to try the syntometrine. Almost immediately after the syntometrine my placenta literally fell out with no effort or pushing!

just thought i'd share my experience in case it is useful:

I had a no-intervention/no drugs water birth at home and had decided to go for a physiological 3rd stage as everything else had been "au naturel". I was interested by yiur research Tangle, as (as a former scientist) had I read that I might have gone for the injection - (although I believe in my case it may nit have made a difference). Anyway, after the birth I had no further contractions at all. The MW asked me to pull gently on the cord and it slithered out in my hand, bringing the membrane with it. I was not aware I was tugging on the placenta - there was no feeling of that (so they thought the placenta had already detached and was sitting in the uterus) but in fact it did not come away AT ALL, which was why I then lost the cord. We tried straining, tried BFing, tried waiting and pushing and then had two injections but all to no avail.

I transferred to hosptial and had a spinal and manual removal and my two mw's stayed with me the whole time. DH was just outside theatre with my newborn. I don't know if it was the extra support I had in theatre or still on a high from the LOs birth, but I really wasn't too phased by the manual removal. I suppose it is a bit "james herriot" but there was no pain, and it was over very quickly and I knew I would be discharged as soon as I had my legs back. the only annoying bit was having to stay in hospital overnight, but as this happened in the small hours anyway I was there for less than 12 hrs in total, and I just see it as " one of those things".

Surgeon said there had simply been no detachment at all - thewhole placenta had remained very firmly attached (so losing the cord was possibly a red herring). I just think its amazing that in another country, (or in this one a hundred years ago), this kind of complication would have meant almost certain death (I imagine, at least, from retained placenta becoming infected).

so - it isn't necessarily an awful experience, at least mine wasnt, but having two mw's that I knew holding my hands during the process definitely helped.

I thought I was the only one this had happened to. The cord snapped as my DD was born, and the consultant did an emergency manual removal. I had had a combination spinal / epidural before I delivered, because the birth had not been going to plan, but even with this, I felt every, every part of it. It was truly horrific.

My consultant said it was the first time he had ever seen this in his career.

It took me a long time to recover from the birth, physically and mentally, and looking back, I probably had undiagnosed PND, which wasn't helped by some members of my family being particularly vicious towards me - I think there was a complete lack of understanding of the violence which my body had been subjected to and the pain I was in.

It was only when I had my DS 2 years later, that I realised that the way I felt after the birth wasn't normal (physically and emotionally). I truly sympathise with all of the other Mums on the thread who have experienced this.

I think one of the reasons the consultant was so rough with me was that because the cord snapped as my DD was being delivered, it hadn't yet been clamped, so the danger was that I would haemmorage (sp?), which I did.

It makes me so thinking about it.

I also had to have a manual removal with dd1 but did not have cord snap just a stubborn refusal by the placenta to come away.
Had had an inj and mw and doc all tried their hardest to help injecteing down the cord? 2nd inj but no joy. Ended up in theatre with a gynae with the largest hands you could imagine (he was over 6 ft) delving around left me v bruised but relieved it was over....

I was warned by the consultant after the birth that as it had happened once the chance of it reoccuring with subsquent preg were raised but not to the point that it would def happen.

I delivered dd2 had syntocin inj and delivered the placenta straight away. I'm now pregnant again and it is purely for this reason I will not be having a homebirth!

doris - have you been told you shouldn't have a HM or have you decided you dont want to have the roisk of having to trabsfer to hospital?

If I got pg again I would definitely want to go for an HB again despite the retained placenta risk.

Is there an increased risk of PPH with retained placenta (I am idly wondering out loud)

I had a brilliant birth back in 2002, DD was 9lb but sadly the cord snapped. What went from being a relaxed and drug free birth turned into a nightmare.

My plan was no injections so the spinal block terrified me and then I was in theatre for a while whilst my new baby was rocked by my mum as DH wanted to be with me.

In the days after my delivery I was unable to lift my left leg to even put my trousers on and it took a long while when I look back for me to regain strength in my leg. Now I don't know why I did not look into this at the time, I suspect severe PND had something to do with it but I gave birth to DD2 10 weeks ago after a nightmare pregnancy as I had SPD an once again my leg started to play up so I am awaiting Physio. I suspect my manual removal is responsible for all of this and my lack of knowledge 6 years ago.

I did however deliver my beautiful long awaited DD2 with just gas and air again and had an amazing midwife who delivered my placenta, I remember her pressing my tummy lots and I am sure thats why it was successful.

Sorry don't know why any of this is relevant to you but I think I needed to get it out amongst people who maybe understand

I've had a physiological 3rd stage (ie. no injection to get the placenta out quicker) with all three of my deliveries and plan on doing the same with number 4.
I've found it got quicker and easier each time. I think it took about an hour for dc1, but probably only about 10 minutes when I got to dc3!
I think it's important to feed the baby straight away, don't allow the midwife to pull on the cord and don't let them make you feel rushed. The baby feeding causes your womb to contract and in the vast vast majority of the time the placenta will come out when it's ready just as nature intended.

reluctantincubator- I was never told no but then never requested it either

I had decided to go for as natural as poss within the hospital setting.

DD2 arrived with just tens until the last 10-15mins when the mw was "playing" with the crochet hook, when I had gas and air.

When I had our second child the cord snapped when the midwife pulled on it. I had to leave my new baby for 3 hours and have it removed in theatre by a man sticking his arm right up inside me. And yes, it was bloody uncomfortable.

I dont know why ive read this but now feel quite emotional having done so. This happened to me and i agree with the person who said manual removal was barbaric.My midwife pulled on the cord and it snapped.Even before this i had endured various unnecessary internals by students.I firmly beleive this is a fault on the part of the midwife as opposed to hundreds of women have faulty placentas.

My midwife was horrible and i was bullied into humiliating positions while being told to push it out. I also had a catheter inserted which was incredibly painfull and various students watched the whole thing.

I was quite young at the time and completeley traumatized and shocked.I felt i had been molested and abused.I never felt so vulnerable or helpless in my life .

I tried to explain to freinds how i felt and often they would respond with their own storys " i know how you feel , i was in labour for 28 hours ".Nobody seemed to understand the horror of it.

I raged and raged for a year or so until i eventually made a complaint to the independant medical folk. Unfortunateley they sent a man to see me , and it didnt go anywhere as i felt uncomfortable speaking to him about this and still couldnt talk about it without crying.

Sadly its only now i realise how much it affected me , i had problems bonding with my baby and often would have nightmares about it and would dream that this was taking place in a theatre with thousands of people watching.Even now i cannot bear to watch childbirth on tv .

I avoided a smear for years as i could not bear to have anyone near me like that , and when i finally did i cried the whole way through. I do not , and never will again , have the blind faith that i once had in medical staff.

On a positive note , i went on to have 2 more babys at home with no intervention whatsoever and a natural 3rd stage. My midwife was very supportive .

After baby no2 was born , there was no sign of placenta and gp arrived to check the baby. He commented in an alarmed way about the situation and actually said to my midwife " Cant you pull it out ".!!!

Sorry to anyone whos gone through this.

Just wanted to add that i was told there was a high chance the same could happen again but considering i wasnt going to let anyone yank on the cord i wasnt too concerned.
My midwife supported the home birth but i know others did not.

inlawoutlaw - I know exactly how you feel. Reassuring to know you went on to have another 2, and at home - thats great.

I found the link earlier in the post useful.