Oxygen Deprivation at birth..... concerns 3 weeks later

[Longlegs1972]

ANyone be able to give some sound straight advice please. My sister in law gave birth 3 weeks ago and baby did not cry or breathe, was resussitated for 12 mins then taken away to Neonatal unit. It took them 3 hours to get back to parents and have now released baby after a week, she was ventilated for 4 days and fitted quite a few times, but she seems, well, i cant put my finger on it but very weak in the wrists and legs. They have been told not to worry and that she is fine, but a brain scan on baby showed a swelling... they are concerned but also not really wanting to know any negative info re baby. I just wondered if anyone else has any knowledge on this subject.

My cousin in law had a ruptured uterus during what should have been an elective CS but ended up as a botched VBAC. She lost a lot of blood and her daughter was severely oxygen deprived. They were told that the baby would probably have 'some degree of brain damage' and, like your niece, she had an obvious weakness in her legs in particular. It would be imposssible to notice this now though, as she is a lively, bright and energetic three year old.

I don't want to say.. "there, there, I'm sure it will all be fine"..as, obviously, every case is different. But I just wanted to tell you about a positive outcome to a similar case.

The absolute truth is that there is no straight advice or answer to this.
Im not sure that even the experts could give you a predicted out come on this.
Hypoxic brain damage will not show up on scan, (in adults certainly anyway).
It really is a wait and watch how development progresses as the child grows older.
Your SIl could make an appointment with the consultant in charge of her case to go through the notes with her and explain the sequence of events. This way any unanswered questions can be answered.
TBH it sounds like your sil isnt ready for this and is recovering from the awful trauma of what has happened to her and her baby at the birth.
She may wish to take up this at a later date though.

thanks for the feedback, i realise it really is a wait and see case, its just that they almost dont want to ask the questions and dont know what to ask, neither have any idea really on what to expect. To be left for 3 hrs after a birth with no baby and not to demand answers would not be the way i would handle it but then again it is their first and by thesounds of it last child.... I just hope that by not knowing anything we are not going to deprive baby of any extra special care, physio etc that she may benefit from, do you know what i mean? Appreciate the positive story though, it is true you just can never tell what will be,....!