Worried about decelerations in labour

[LemonM]

At 36 weeks my waters broke suddenly and I went into hospital. After about an hour on the heart rate monitor, my baby's heart rate dropped to the 80s/90s. An hour after that she was delivered by c section. It was all a bit of a whirlwind but I remember being reassured that everything was ok. My baby is now 6 months old and seems to be developing normally, and was fine after the delivery too (no NICU or anything). but I keep worrying about those decelerations. Is it likely that any harm came to my little girl that might become apparent later? I know I should have asked more questions at the time, but I ended up with excessive blood loss myself was just concerned that baby and me were both alive

I had some decelerations with DS2, I heard the midwives mentioning it as I was in the final pushing stage (or matbe just before? It's all a blur), but the main midwife said she was sure he was about to come out (not sure if she'd called the 2nd for a 2nd opinion or because I was pushing), so told the other not to worry, and he did - I was only pushing for 10 mins overall. He's now 5yo with no issues at all. HTH, though I realise your baby had a longer period of them.

The staff would have taken venous and arterial blood samples from your placenta to show if the decelerations caused any oxygen deprivation. If these were normal which I imagine they were in your case as the baby was fine and no admission to NICU, your baby responded in the normal physiological way during labour and coped with the decelerations causing no long term effects, it’s a little bit more complex than that and I hope that makes sense but you have no reason to worry about it😌

My DS was 10 weeks prem, had emergency c-section as heart rate went into the 60’s (it took 6 months to get him breathing) and he spent a good 6 weeks In nicu. He’s now 9 and completely fine and well and a very clever boy. Don’t worry x

My son had decelerations in labour.. One was fairly early on in the day and I remember being terrified as they made me lie on my side called for Dr opinion etc but then said it was fine.. Then when I was in active labour he was having consistent decels and they did a epistemology and got him out pretty sharpish. Ds did need nicu care.. He needed a little breathing help initially, had a pneumothorax, they thought he had an infection, they then decided he needed a blood transfusion a day later.
He's now 2 and as far as I can tell doesn't seem to have affected him. He caught up quickly on weight and met all milestones (hasn't had 2 year check due to covid situation) but from the letter they sent he meets them too.
I know I heard the consultant tell midwife to send placenta for tests after but I never heard any results of that and she did tell me that he wasnt deprived of oxygen.

Thank you both so much, this is very reassuring! @thetangleteaser I hope you don't mind me asking, but you seem very knowledgeable - my baby is actually an identical twin, so the placenta was serving two babies. Would that still apply? Her sister's heart rate remained perfect throughout. Sorry I probably should have included that info in my first post

Thank you all - really glad to hear that your little ones are doing ok

The sample is taken from the cord, so each twin would have had their own blood samples taken an analysed. This is usually done in any delivery we’re complications arise and especially as your twins were slightly premature. Congratulations on your twins! Most hospitals offer a birth debriefing service if you have any questions, where a midwife can go through the notes with you, it all ends up being such a blur!

@thetangleteaser thank you so much, I will sleep a bit better tonight knowing this (well, twins permitting )

Congrats :) just to add to the reassurance, decelerations are baby’s way of coping with different types of stress, and there are different types of decelerations with different levels of concern. The most concerning types would lead to a “crash” or category 1 CS which you would know about - it doesn’t take an hour to do that, you would have been raced through to theatre with bells and whistles and most likely put off to sleep to get baby out within 10mins or so. The fact that she was delivered an hour after the decel suggests that it was enough for the doctors to think she needed out, but that they weren’t urgently concerned. That also matches with no NICU admission and no complications until now. As pp have said, I dont think you need to worry! But if still anxious then you can ask for a debrief appointment. Congrats on your babies, hope everything else is going well :)

@TenThousandSpoons0 sorry to derail but I found your reply interesting! I had a pretty fast labour including the final atafe, could that have been the cause of stress for my DS?

stage not atafe!

@SugarHour yup that’s a common scenario. A baby who is well, with good reserves, can cope quite well with labour as long as there is a bit of time to rest between contractions. The baby may even have decelerations but as long as the heart rate comes back up quickly and is normal otherwise, then they’re fine (I am simplifying a bit but otherwise would have to write pages!). If baby either has less reserves (for example small, preterm - or for the OP, a twin which is a bit higher risk) then they may struggle after a while - or if the rest time isn’t long enough, as you sometimes get in a fast labour. Sometimes it helps to compare it to being in a swimming pool where you can touch the bottom - if you’re well and your lungs are fine you could go under water for half a minute, come up for a rest, repeat, all day with no worries. If you’re sick, or suddenly you don’t get to come up to rest for long, then you’ll soon be in trouble.
Also with a fast labour often baby descends super quick through the birth canal. That puts lots of squeeze - particularly around baby’s head - and one of the responses to that is to drop heart rate. Again often fine if baby was well before that, particularly if it only takes a couple of pushes - but can sometimes mean need for instrumental delivery. Does that ring right to you? Hope your baby was all ok in the end, super fast labour can be pretty scary!

Sorry for long and slightly off topic reply OP! I find it an interesting subject :)

That is indeed really interesting @TenThousandSpoons0 - thank you so much for explaining
Birth is such a complex thing isn't it. I really admire the staff who are constantly having to make big decisions!

Thank you @tenthousandspoons0! That does ring true for me. He was a big, 2 weeks overdue, baby, and I'm quite petite, then the whole labour was a few hours with pushing only lasting 10 minutes. I didn't think much of it at the time as the midwife didn't seem worried (she said she could tell when she saw me I was going to have a big baby) but I do remember the other midwife commenting on it - she said if I'd been in the birth centre (which I only wasn't as it was full) they'd have moved me to the labour ward (which would have meant delivering en route!). Anyway all was fine, I didn't need instruments or have any tears (phew) though I did lose a lot of blood (also common with fast labours?)

@SugarHour yes it can be more likely - almost as if your uterus just uses all its energy contracting as fast as possible to push the baby out and then goes phew, I’m done now... and forgets to contract to stop the bleeding. Also fast labour = more tears = more bleeding but doesn’t sound like the case for you :) also if overdue sometimes less reserves (placenta may be starting to fail a little bit) = more decels