I am sure many of you have heard this story. A mother went to the hospital with contractions at 33 weeks gestation, and during her labour she died and after no success at reviving her, the doctors performed a C-section right in the birthing room. Her son was born limp, with a very low,and weak heart beat. Her heart had been stopped for approximately 4 minutes when she came around and was taken to the OR to finish the surgery. Her son became stronger while his father held his little body.
This story sounds very frightening and stories like this frighten women out of childbirth. The truth is though, this incident was caused by the interventions that are commonly placed upon pregnant women and their babies.
After the original news article about this scary incident, new information has come out. The woman has had 2 previous births, both natural with no medications of any sort. This birth however was handled differently. She went into the hospital with contractions at 33 weeks gestation (several weeks too early), for some reason the doctors gave her artificial oxytocin (pitocin in the US, syntocinon in Canada) a drug used to make contractions stronger and longer and meant to make labour quicker. Then she was given an epidural for the pain caused by the induced contractions. As soon as she received the epidural, she stopped breathing, we know this because it has been reported that the anesthesiologist was the one performing CPR on the woman.
What bothers me most about this is that the hospital has stated that they don't know what caused her heart to stop and that tests have been inconclusive. But to anyone who knows about natural childbirth, it is pretty obvious what happened. This woman had an adverse reaction to the epidural. It isn't common but it does happen, it is just one of the many things that we don't hear about. Learn more about epidurals and their risks here http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmepidural.htm#medical_risks_epidurals_rates
Stories like this should remind us that childbirth is a normal, natural part of life and needs to be treated that way. It isn't something that needs to be controlled or managed, it is a special part of human life that needs to be respected. I hope that this family can move on from this and have a wonderful life, raising their beautiful children.
Much Love,
Marissa
Link to first new article http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/msnbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=23164083
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