Hello , my good
 Friend has a beautiful 6-year old who is brain-dead. She was born in the
hospital , routine , totally unmediated birth, when the baby was born she
did not cry , the doctor and nurses panicked , there was a lot of
medications administered . Later they could not tell if the outcome resulted
from the initial problem , or the treatment. They could not even remember
all that was done , but admitted to giving her an overdose of SEVERAL very
strong medications , they were given at the same time.
On the other hand my next door neighbor has a son ( now 22 ) , who is
severely brain damaged , when she was ready to push her Doctor was having
lunch and refused to be interrupted. The Nurse held her legs together for
over a half of hour. The baby had severe oxygen deprivation and was "saved"
by the heroic Doctor. The Mother still thinks the Doctor was wonderful , it
was just Her poor timing.
I had my 6th baby 3 weeks ago. While I was waiting for my midwife in the
triage room a Doctor on duty was passing by , he saw my belly in the gap of
the curtains and started yelling , that I need an immediate C-section ,
while it is slow , because my baby is too big and i will not be able to push
it out. Not only was he NOT my midwife's back up , he did not even see the
whole me , just my middle. I am a big women , over 200 lb. My midwife had to
do a sonogram to get him off our back , and to prove that the baby was
birthable. My beautiful daughter was born in one push , weighing 8lb , the
baby # 5 was born weighing 10lb. No problem pushing out nether of them. It
was scary to me how this Doctor could affect my birth outcome if me or my
midwife were less assertive. This Doctor is "famous" for 38 week inductions
, followed by C-section .
  I believe none of this could have happened during a homebirth.
Henya Kazatchkov


On 1/4/08, R M WAHL <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I do agree that women need choices with birthing options.  It sounds like
> the Netherlands have an ideal situation with a home like atmosphere with
> close access to emergency help.  I think that an structured education is
> very important for providing any kind of care.  One of the reasons that so
> many nurses provide poor lactation support, is because they have not been
> educated in normal breastfeeding.
>
> I have see the results of birth accidents and incompetence or inexperience
> which has resulted in damaged babies.  These things happen with both
> doctors
> and midwives in attendance.  It is painful to watch the perfect looking
> baby
> with no blink or gag reflex and the parents that are experencing emotional
> pain and grief.  The parents want everything done for their baby and
> unfortunately there is not much to do but to stabilize and try treatments
> like head cooling.  I have not heard of babies dying at home (during the
> birthing process) in my community, so it seems that most parents choose to
> provide medical care when a home birth fails.
>
> Over the course of many years, I have seen less morbidity (infants have
> less
> severe brain damage) because of rapidly performed c-sections in hospital
> births.  Home births may have more severe outcomes because of the distance
> from the hospital.
>
> As lactation consultants, you probably never see the severely affected
> infants.  They are unable to swallow their secretions and require tube
> feedings for their nutrition.  They are at high risk for aspiration.
>
> Some of the less severely affected infants may bottle, but they usually
> don't have a normal suck and may make more of a chewing motion.  I did
> just
> work with a baby that recovered nicely from the birth asphyxia and was
> able
> to latch and breastfeed.  He may or may not have long term neurological
> problems.  The financial and emotional burden on these families are huge
> and
> the more severe the damage the higher the financial (and probably
> emotional)
> cost.
>
> I hope that your New Year has been peaceful.  Sincerely, Rachel Wahl RN
> IBCLC
>
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