Growing Your Baby - Parenthood from Pregnancy to Pre-school » Labour and Delivery

Indonesian Mom Gives Birth To 19.2lb Baby!!

Lisa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:51:05 +0000

Wholly schmuckers! An Indonesian woman has given birth to a 19.2-pound baby boy, the heaviest newborn ever recorded in the country.

The baby, who is still unnamed and 24.5 inches long, was delivered by caesarean section Monday at a public hospital in North Sumatra province.

“This heavy baby made the surgery really tough, especially the process of taking him out of his mother’s womb. His legs were so big,” Binsar Sitanggang, a gynaecologist who took part in the operation said.

Despite having to initially be given oxygen to overcome breathing problems, the boy is in good condition.

“He’s got strong appetite, every minute, it’s almost non-stop feeding,” he said.

“This baby boy is extraordinary, the way he’s crying is not like a usual baby. It’s really loud.”

The boy’s massive size was likely the result of his mother, Ani, 41, having diabetes.

At nine months, she had to be rushed to hospital due to complications with the pregnancy. The baby, her fourth, was the only child not delivered by a traditional midwife.

When a diabetic mother’s glucose level is high during pregnancy, the baby can receive too much glucose and grow too large, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Indonesia’s previous heaviest baby, weighing in at 6.9 kilos, was born in 2007 on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, according to the Indonesian Museum of Records website.

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Doctor Wants Dads Banned From Labour Ward – Childbirth Too Tramautic

Lisa — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:03:01 +0000

London obstetrician Michel Odent wants parents-to-be to know that their birthing experience may go a whole lot smoother if dad waits in the hall.

Having been involved in childbirth for 50 years and having been in charge of 15,000 births, Dr. Odent has found that presence of a father in a delivery room is not only unnecessary but also hinders labour.

He’s convinced that the participation of fathers is one of the main reasons for long and difficult labours. And there are a number of basic physiological reasons for this.

Here are his thoughts:

First, a labouring woman needs to be protected against any stimulation of the thinking part of her brain, the neocortex, for labour to proceed with any ease.

This part of the brain needs to take a back seat and allow the primal “unthinking” part of the brain, connected to basic, vital functions, to take over.

Yet, motivated by a desire to “share the experience”, the man asks questions and offers words of reassurance and advice. In doing so, he denies his partner the quiet mind she needs.

The second reason is that the father’s release of the stress hormone adrenalin as he watches his partner labour causes her anxiety and prevents her relaxing.

It has been proven that it is physically impossible to be in a state of relaxation if there’s an individual standing next to you who is tense and full of adrenalin.

With a man present, a woman cannot be as relaxed as she needs to be during labour. Hence, the process becomes more difficult.

He has also been with many women as they struggled to give birth, with their partner at their side. Yet, the moment he leaves the room, the baby arrives.

After birth, too, a woman needs a few moments with her baby, particularly between the time of birth and when she delivers the placenta.

In order to deliver the placenta easily, her levels of oxytocin – the hormone of love – need to peak.

This happens if she has a moment in which she can forget everything, save for her baby, and if she has time in which she can look into the baby’s eyes, make contact with its skin and take in its smell, without distractions.

Often, when a baby is born, men cannot help but say something or try to touch the baby.

Their interference at this key moment is, more often than not, the main cause for a difficult delivery of the placenta, too.

But it’s not just the fact that men slow down labour that makes me cautious about their presence at the birth.

There are two other important questions he would like to see answered scientifically.

Are we sure that all men can easily cope with the strong emotional reaction they have when they participate in the birth?
Some men experience a form of postpartum depression. In its mild form, men take to their bed in the week following the birth, complaining of everything from stomach ache or migraine to a 24-hour bug. Studies found that, rather than admit a low mood, men often offer up a symptom as a reason why they’ve taken to their bed.
If a man is present at birth, will be the effect on the sexual attraction he feels towards his wife?
When men began standing at their partner’s side in labour, the older generation believed that the couple’s intimate life would be ruined. And, given that the key to eroticism is a degree of mystery, they may have a point.

Even though this doctor makes some very good points, I found that childbirth brought my husband and I together. Some men are a great support system for their wives during the craziness of labor. I guess it’s up to the moms-to-be to determine if their hubby will crumble under the pressure or rise to the occasion.

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C-Section Not Best Option For Breech Birth

Lisa — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:36:20 +0000

According to new guidelines by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada physicians should no longer automatically opt to perform a cesarean section in the case of a breech birth.

The guidelines, which were released yesterday, are in response to new evidence that shows many women are safely able to vaginally deliver babies who enter the birth canal with the buttocks or feet first. Normally, the infant descends head first.

“Our primary purpose is to offer choice to women,” said André Lalonde, executive vice-president of the SOGC.

“More women are feeling disappointed when there is no one who is trained to assist in breech vaginal delivery,” he adds.

Since 2000, C-sections have been the preferred method of delivery in breech births. Studies suggested that breached births were associated with an increased rate of complication when performed vaginally.

As a result, many medical schools have stopped training their physicians in breech vaginal delivery.

The problem now, according to Dr. Lalonde, is that there is a serious shortage of doctors to teach and perform these deliveries.

With the release of the new guidelines, the SOGC will launch a nationwide training program to ensure that doctors will be adequately prepared to offer vaginal breech births .

New research shows there is no difference in complication rates between vaginal and cesarean section deliveries in the case of breech births.

The SOGC stresses that because of complications that may arise, many breech deliveries will still require a cesarean section.

Breech presentations occur in 3-4 per cent of pregnant women who reach term, which translates to approximately 11,000 to 14,500 breech deliveries a year in Canada.

The new decision to offer vaginal breech birth aligns with the SOGC promotion of normal childbirth – spontaneous labour, followed by a delivery that is not assisted by forceps, vacuum or cesarean section. In December of 2008, the society release a policy statement that included its recommendation for a development of national practice guidelines on normal childbirth.

“The safest way to deliver has always been the natural way,” said Dr. Lalonde.

“Vaginal birth is the preferred method of having a baby because a C-section in itself has complications.”

Cesarean sections, in which incisions are made through a mother’s abdomen and uterus to deliver the baby, can lead to increased chance of bleeding and infections and can cause further complications for pregnancies later on.

The SOGC believes that if a woman is well-prepared during pregnancy, she has the innate ability to deliver vaginally.

The national average for babies delivered via cesarean section in Canada is 25 per cent.

The causes of breech presentations are not fully known. However, a breech birth is more common :

In subsequent pregnancies
In pregnancies of multiples
When there is history of premature delivery
When the uterus has too much or too little amniotic fluid
In an abnormal shaped uterus or a uterus with abnormal growths, such as fibroids.
For women with placenta previa

SOURCE

Pregnancy Experts Warn Against Inducing Labour

Lisa — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:18:37 +0000

Leaders of Canada’s pregnancy specialists are urging doctors not to induce labour until after the 41st week unless there are compelling medical reasons.

The call is part of a campaign to “normalize” childbirth after some studies suggest inducing labour in a first-time mother significantly increases her risk of a C-section.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, inductions accounted for 20 per cent of all in-hospital births in Canada (excluding Quebec) in 2006-07, which is up 9% from 1980.

Several factors are driving induction rates, including the number of older first-time mothers, medical legal concerns and convenience.

Induction of labour occurs when medications such as prostaglandin and oxytocin are used when a woman is past her due date to ripen the cervix and get the uterus contracting. It can lead to longer, more painful labour and continuous electronic monitoring of the baby’s heart rate.

The number one risk of induction is that it leads to earlier decisions about a C-section, which now stands at an all-time high in Canada. Nearly 28 per cent of babies were born surgically in Canada in 2007-08, according to a national report released last week. That’s up from five per cent in 1969.

“Once you have used certain methods, such as rupturing the membrane (breaking the waters), we know that you have to have a delivery within 12 hours, otherwise it increases the risk of infection,” said Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Research shows that, in healthy pregnancies, checking the baby’s heart rate after contractions by listening, or using a hand-held device, reduces the risk of interventions.

But a recently released Canadian survey of more than 6,000 women who have given birth in the last few years found most women (91 per cent) experienced electronic fetal monitoring during labour — including 63 per cent who had continuous electronic monitoring.

There is a concern that women, and their doctors, have lost confidence in the ability to give birth without technological interventions.

“The sense of letting nature decide, I think we’ve lost a little bit of that, because everything is so planned down to the minute,” said Dr. William Ehman, a family doctor in Nanaimo, B.C

Families watch the clock as the pregnancy approaches the due date, and, if women start to go over, a nervousness settles in.

“People start calling them. ‘Why haven’t you had your baby?’”

While extremely rare, the risk of a stillbirth increases after 39 to 40 weeks’ gestation, Ehman says.

“When we hear about a woman who has an unexpected stillbirth at 40 weeks and five days, you think, could we have prevented it?”

But, “we know the evidence is clear that, overall, you do much better for the women by not offering induction until after 41 weeks.”

“Nature prepares the uterus better than we can,” Ehman said. “There’s probably a whole host of things that triggers labour in the first place — and mainly it’s probably the baby. So when the baby is ready it facilitates labour by lots of mechanisms that we can’t do.

“We can add these chemicals and get the uterus contracting. But we just know that the numbers say that inductions, if they are done unnecessarily, are going to increase the risk of a C-section.”

SOURCE

Dancing Through Labor

Lisa — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:12:43 +0000

Last year when Camila Alves delivered her first baby, new daddy Matthew McConaughey told OK Magazine that she danced through labor saying,

“Contractions started kicking in, and we found a great rhythm. We had a 14-hour session, her and I did. I sat there with her, right between her legs. We got tribal on it. We danced to it. I was DJing this native Brazilian music.”

Dancing through labor has become increasingly popular as moms try to find natural ways to deal with contractions.

Many of the movements in belly dance are similar to movements and techniques taught in childbirth class. For instance, the belly roll in typical belly dancing is similar to the pattern of breathing progression women are taught to practice during labor: lower abdominal breaths, to more shallow chest breathing, and to the popular panting breath.

The pelvic rock that most childbirth preparation classes teach is to stretch and strengthen the pelvic muscles; allow the baby to attain a better position in the pelvis; and to ease the strain on the laboring mother’s back. These hip and pelvic movements are synonymous with the hip circles, figure eights, and hip lifts of belly dancing.

When I had my son dancing was the last thing on mind. Heck the pain was so intense I couldn’t even speak let alone dance…

How do these women do it?

The woman in the video below is 9cm dilated and dancing like she is at a Caribbean resort…

Husband Helps Deliver Wife’s Surprise Baby

Lisa — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:37:34 +0000

A surprised Michigan dad helped deliver his wife’s baby boy despite not knowing she was pregnant.

The man called 911 early this morning because his wife was in labor. He told the dispatcher that he didn’t know his 27-year-old wife was pregnant. He thought her recent weight gain because they had just quit smoking.

The baby was successfully delivered and then transferred to the hospital for observation.

The new baby joins the couple’s two children, and an another child from a previous relationship.

SOURCE

If You Meet A Pregnant Woman – Say Something Nice!

Lisa — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:09:30 +0000

As I enter into my last month of pregnancy, I must say that I will be glad to have the baby in my arms soon.

This is not because I don’t like being pregnant, but because I would like all of the pregnancy horror stories to end.

Even though I already have a son, I didn’t get to do the whole pregnancy thing – getting ripped off 16 weeks early. This makes me a target for those who have delivered full term babies to tell me their horror stories of 48 hour labors and ripping from one end to the other.

In the last few weeks I have heard about:

someone losing their baby at 36 weeks (that’s where I am)
someone who had a botched c-section
someone who’s hubby cheated 4 days before baby #2 arrived

This on top of multiple inquiries about if I am going to bust soon…

For all of you who have had nightmare deliveries, crummy pregnancies or unfortunate things happen after, it may be nice to keep them private until others have their babies safely in their arms.

I have no control over what my little monkey is doing inside right now, how incompetent the doctor is going to be or how my body is going to react to childbirth. But I do deserve the right to enter into this with faith, which is hard when you hear negative stories.

So…if you see a pregnant woman today, resist the urge to tell her about all the bad things you have heard and say something nice!

Study: Mothers Bond Better with Babies Born Naturally

Lisa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:24:55 +0000

A new study reveals that women who have a natural birth form stronger bonds with their babies than those who deliver by Caesarean section.

Stimulation of the cervix and vagina during natural birth releases hormones that generate powerful feelings critical to a woman’s performance as a mother immediately after delivery.

But a Caesarean delivery in which the baby is removed from the womb via a surgical incision in the abdominal wall alters the “neurohormonal experience” of birth, increasing the risk that mother and baby will fail to bond.

Doctors from the Child Study Centre at Yale University, who used brain scans to study the brain activity of 20 first-time mothers, found those who had delivered vaginally were more responsive to their baby’s cry two to four weeks after delivery. Those who delivered by Caesarean were less responsive.

The study involved 12 new mothers who were having their first baby, six of whom had a vaginal delivery and six a Caesarean “planned for convenience”. The mothers listened to recorded cries of their babies two to four weeks after delivery. James Swain, lead author of the study published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, said: “More women wait until they are older to have children, and by association [are] more likely to have a Caesarean delivery. These results are important because they could provide better understanding of the basic neurophysiology and psychology of parent-infant attachment.”

Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said that bonding between mother and baby was extremely important.

“Women who have a Caesarean should be encouraged to cuddle their newborn against their skin straight after birth and be offered help to feed and care for their baby. A Caesarean section is necessary in some cases and can save lives – however, surgery can create more problems than it solves.”

SOURCE

California Mom Gives Birth On Front Lawn Solo

Lisa — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:37:09 +0000

When Jessica Higgins woke up yesterday morning, she probably had no idea that by the end of the day she would be a mom and that the baby would be delivered in the middle of her front lawn!

But that is exactly what happened.

The California mom had just arrived home from the mall, with her 2-year-old still sleeping in the back of her car, when she realized she was in labor.

Even though the brave mom had called 911, her new baby was already out when police arrived.

“She was just standing in the driveway rocking the newborn, who was still attached to the placenta,” Officer Manny Ramos said Wednesday.

Higgins’ husband, Jeff, arrived in time to cut the baby’s umbilical cord under the front-yard ficus tree.

The proud mother, who was recovering at a hospital Wednesday, said “everything happened so fast.” She said she had her son’s portrait taken at the mall earlier in the day and was on hold with the doctor’s office when the baby started pushing.

Mary Claire, born at 5 pounds, 11 ounces is said to be doing fine.

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Ricki Lake Defends Documentary

Lisa — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:03:41 +0000

Ricki Lake responds to physicians groups that have singled her out for bringing attention to at-home childbirth.

The 39-year-old former talk-show host was called out in a recent statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that says the home is not the safest setting for having a baby.

In her film The Business of Being Born, a documentary about the maternity care system that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, Lake is shown giving birth in the bathtub of her Manhattan apartment to her second son Owen, who turns 7 on Wednesday.

The ACOG statement, supported in a resolution Tuesday by the American Medical Association, said, “There has been much attention in the media by celebrities having home deliveries,” citing a Today Show headline that read “Ricki Lake takes on the baby birthing industry: Actress and former talk show host shares her at-home delivery in her new film.”

“It’s scary that both (the ACOG and the AMA) have sort of targeted me,” Lake told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “And, you know, I’m all about choice. This is not unlike the abortion issue. I am pro-choice when it comes to childbirth and choices in birth. Home birth was around long before hospitals were taking over — and I just think women need to know (the information) so that they can make the best choice for them.”

The AMA resolves in the statement to support state legislation “that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting” is a hospital, connected birthing center or other approved facility.

I disagree with both associations. This documentary responsibly shows expectant mothers alternative options that are supervised by trained professionals. Its not like she is promoting free birthing…

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Photo via thebusinessofbeingborn.com