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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

saw beeb programme last night - scary!!

28 replies

bumbly · 10/07/2007 09:59

made me think a lot.....

how long does a baby's brain need to be starved of oxygen before any damage actually occurs...am thinking of that case of cord wrapped around poor newborn's neck...

few minutes? how many minutes? or can a baby not cry for a while, be starved of oxygen and actually turn out completely fine???

scared - worried

OP posts:

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bellabelly · 10/07/2007 10:01

What programme was it? I missed it...

thehairybabysmum · 10/07/2007 10:07

I saw this, it was scary but try not to worry.

With a natural birth baby usually out head first so they would see the cord straight away and midwife hooks it off. This baby was breech hence not out head first and dont forget the babay WAS fine in the end.

Dont know the answers to your questions but try and remeber that most births are ok and the program was by it's nature focusing on the 'fight' for life...i.e difficult births.

MrsTom · 10/07/2007 10:09

It was an excellent programme! I was crying at parts but then when they explained how the babies survival instincts kicked in and all was well in the end, it was lovely.

It was particularly interesting with the US baby who had the tumor at the base of his spine. Our LO has something similar on it's chest wall (nowhere near as large thankfully) and it was reassuring to see that things can work out in the end.

SANA · 10/07/2007 11:02

I watched this and I was sobbing in parts. Makes u realise what a miracle life is!! praying it all goes well for all of us

IAmAwenSoNobOffIWasHereFirst · 10/07/2007 11:04

I was a really good programme. It showed how amazing a baby is and how much they can overcome. Also this situations are rare. Most of the time baby is perfectly healthy.

Mrswizz · 10/07/2007 11:46

I was crying too. I'm pg with my first, 20 weeks and this scared and delighted me equally. The natural birth mother just looked so huge and with those stretch marks she looked like she was going to burst.

No point in worrying about your own baby's birth - you've just got to trust the docs and midwives and get on with it.

Oblomov · 10/07/2007 12:08

They were talking about this in the office today. I missed it. Is it on again ?
Thehairybabysmum - when you say "most births are ok ", do you really think thats true ? I don't mean to scare anyone, but I have never met a single person, who had an 'uncomplicated' birth. 30 of my friends have had baby's in the last 4 years. Not one was without complications, from midwives who wouldn't listen, to third degree tears and being traumatised. I wonder what % of mn'etters, had "NO COMPLICATIONS". Few I think. Or maybe we are misinformed as to how difficult childbirth is. What do you think ?

mad4girls · 10/07/2007 12:11

i think i watched that i thought the lo's problems were because he had meconium in his lungs

was that a different baby? or a different show ?

FluffyMummy123 · 10/07/2007 12:11

Message withdrawn

leCodgy · 10/07/2007 12:13

I did the same as Cod but kept on turning back to see how the baby with meconium on his lungs was. I don't think i'll be watching next week though about slightly older children there was a clip and it looked horrific.

pooka · 10/07/2007 12:15

TBH I think that most people I know who did not have elective csections DID have uncomplicated labours.

I wouldn't for example, see my tears (with dd and ds) as being complications, insofar as they (although mighty inconvenient) did not threaten my life or that of my babies.
Even with dd, where I felt scared and completely unprepared for the process of labour, on paper it was a very straightforward birth.

I do therefore think that most births are uncomplicated and straightforward, while one's own feelings about the birth can be anything but.

detoxdiva · 10/07/2007 12:15

Oblomov - I think it depends on your thoughts on what an 'uncomplicated birth' is - I consider myself to have been lucky and had a strighforward, uncomplicated natural birth - I did tear pretty badly, but I don't think my birth was complicated because of this.

Of the 5 women in my antenatal group, 1 was undiagnosed breech and had a c-section and one had twins so elected to have a c-section, but th other 3 of us had normal, straighforward births.

I think we hear more about the difficult ones in general, but this shouldn't mean we have a distorted perception of how many births do actually progress just fine!

Oblomov · 10/07/2007 12:23

Maybe its more like pooka says then, that we are unprepared. Maybe mums-to-be whould be more 'prepared' by a pre-natal class that explains things properly, without scaring the living daylights out of them. I had no idea before I went in. I think most people are the same.

Pheebe · 10/07/2007 12:24

I started to watch it but DH turned it over when I started crying (in my defence I'm 6 months gone!).

Oblomov - agree with the other posters, most births are straightforward for the baby but not necessarily for the mum. For us its never easy but so so worth it

toomanyshoes · 10/07/2007 12:27

Oblomov - I think a lot of women view perfectly healthy, normal births as 'complicated' becuase we are sold a vision of how the perfect birth should be. No drugs, no tears, calm throughout, no raise/drop in blood pressure etc.

I think it's an unrealistic view and one which leaves many women disappointed by the experience. For what it's worth I had a very straightforward and positive experience when I had my daughter.
This is despite having the cord round her neck, stitches, my blood pressure shooting up and retained placenta afterwards. All part and parcel of having a baby I reckon! Only really 'complicated' if yours or the babies life is in serious danger imo

thehairybabysmum · 10/07/2007 12:28

Oblomov i meant ok in terms of outcome for the baby rather than the birth process itself. I agree that giving birth could almost always be classed as a complicated process even if all went well. Tis a matter of perception on that one i reckon.

Personally i had an waters breaking with no contrations, induction 4 days later then an emergency section when DS heart rate went v. slow. But DS came out absolutely fine with no problems so i would class that as uncomplicated IYSWIM.

Out of your 30 friends with babies do any of them have babies who had problems as opposed to the mums??

harpsichordcuddler · 10/07/2007 12:31

imvho I think many labours are "complicated" by being in hospital, the effect that has on the mother and the overmecialisation of birth and the propensity to induce "late" babies i.e. past 40 weeks and the tendency to intervene too quickly and the overuse of drugs and and and and....
antenatal education can be helpful but I would say that being an antenatal teacher

aDad · 10/07/2007 12:45

I watched a bit of this - got drawn in by the baby that had meconium aspiration, as this is what happened to dd1. Made me realise all the more how lucky we were, and amazing what medicine can do for us these days.

Oblomov · 10/07/2007 13:00

Thehairy, both. But mainly mums I suppose. Prob only a 1/4 of the babies.

thehairybabysmum · 10/07/2007 13:57

I meant to say as well that your xmas card list must be massive!!!

Stefka · 10/07/2007 14:46

We caught the start of this but ended up having to switch it off. I am already scared about giving birth so even though parts of the programme were amazing I couldn't keep watching it.

Original poster

bumbly · 10/07/2007 15:02

it was scary - yes!!!!

any thoughts on my original post re brain damage and how long does a baby need to be starved of oxygen before this happens?

OP posts:

Oblomov · 10/07/2007 15:10

Hairy, it comes of marrying into a BIG catholic Irish family. The birthday card thing is ricky-doodilous - I have on average 4-6 per month = 72 per year. Dh pointed this out to his mum the other day. Some are friends. Friends for yrs. 3 girls , from the same family all had their second child 2 months ago - thats 3 christenings this month, then ! I didn't say they were all friends. My sil gave birth last month. As did my dh's nephew's gf. As did the 18 yesr old granddaughter. Aunty Anne's niece died in childbirth last month aswell, at the age of 34
It goes on and on, believe me

kyala · 10/07/2007 16:44

Ooh I didn't see that but have had worries about this since doing a play in school (years ago LOL) about a boy with cerebral palsay. . . .anyway. . . my little one's head came out and the MW said "the cord's round it's neck" so I just stood up dead straight, scared the bejesus out of me!!
She got it off almost straight away, which led the baby to fall out of me LOL but it did make me wnder how long the cord was round her neck during labour?!

She's fine, more than fine she's far too intelligent, and there was never any indication that anything was wrong during labour, heartbeat etc were all fine all the way through so maybe it wasn't there for too long.

What a useless contribution LOL I've got too much time on my hands!!

Mintpurple · 10/07/2007 17:45

Bumbly

I didn't see the programme last night but please be reassured that healthy term babies are incredibly resilient and can tolerate quite long periods of oxygen deprivation with no ill effects. There is not a definitive time before damage occurs though, as different babies have different levels of reserves and there are always other factors which can make a difference such as the presence of infection or growth restriction.

Most acute asphyxias (oxy deprivation at the time of birth) will not leave any long term problems for baby.

Obviously this is not the case for everyone, and I'm sure someone will be ready to contradict this, but for most babies this is true. This is quite different to something like mec aspiration, which leads to a different set of problems.

But please be reassured that for most people, having a baby is really quite uncomplicated and normal. Doesnt make for a very interesting story though, normality

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