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Saturday 29 June 2013

Twins and a Prolapsed Cord

This weekend at the hospital was nuts.  There were  naked women on the dirty floor yelling, "The baby is coming!"  There were not enough beds for them all, and there were more pukers than usual.

The operating theatre was not "in service" due to the air conditioner being broken.  I am not sure why the air-con is necessary to operate, but apparently it is.  The vacuum extractor was also broken. 

So into this environment, a lady named Malley (not her real name) walked in.  Her belly was HUGE (in an adorable way) and she had not had prenatal care.  She walked around until a baby started to fall out bum first. A little girl was born breech.  Then another baby started to make his way into the room head first.  Unfortunately his umbilical cord led the way.  So now the midwives were dealing with a prolapsed cord.

The midwives flipped her over to a head down/ on her knees position and tried to push the cord back up into the mom.  They also pushed the head up and then flipped her back to her back and applied suprapubic pressure in an upward direction to hold the head up off the chord while trying to fix the vacuum extractor.  They couldn't get it to work and they called the doctor.  Meanwhile there was still a heartbeat.  I was holding Malley's hand, praying with her and comforting her.  She asked me to sing a hymn while we waited.  Singing is not my gift, but we sang anyway.

The doctor arrived and without the option of C section or the vacuum, he proceeded to just have her try to deliver the baby quickly.  Two contractions later the head was in the birth canal and the chord had stopped pulsating.  Two more contractions.  We all started to anticipate a dead baby.  I prayed and prayed.  A very grey and limp 5lb baby emerged.  After some stimulation though he pinked up and cried.  I checked on him a lot throughout the rest of the day.  He was a champion nurser and very alert little guy.  I'm so thankful that he is okay.

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