What if…

You MUST read this!  If there is nothing else you read during your whole pregnancy, read this one.  And give it out to all your pregnant friends too. Not only does it help prepare you just in case you have an a ’emergency’ childbirth situation, but it helps you to understand that birth is not scary, but pretty straightforward.

This is a booklet called Emergency Childbirth by Dr Gregory White.  It is written for emergency services workers, who may come across a woman about to give birth as they go about their duties.  It covers quite a few different birthing ’emergencies’ and what to do about them.

Here it is:
Emergency Childbirth

I just love this quote “In over 95% of cases of emergency childbirth though the emergency attendant will be overwhelmed with gratitude, and widely praised as a hero or heroine, he or she can smile within themselves at the knowledge that their simple tasks could have been performed by any bright eight-year-old.”  I know my hubby felt that way after my accidental unassisted homebirth!  Everyone congratulated him, and he said ‘but all I did was catch!’  He said, he had so much adrenaline pumping through his system, and all he had to do was stand by and watch and wait (and run to the bedroom to get my printed out copy of this booklet!)

 

 

Birth Story: Cord Prolapse Survival

This is an amazing birth story.  Please don’t think I’m putting it here to scare you, but instead, to educate you, if you have the rare birth complication of a cord prolapse.  This baby was born completely healthy, due to the mother’s quick thinking.  I’ve included down the bottom a ‘How to Handle a Cord Prolapse’ guide from another site.

 

The lady who originally posted this story on her blog is great.  Go check it out her site. 

 

http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2010/11/birth-story-cord-prolapse-at-home.html

Birth story: cord prolapse at home

A reader recently sent me an incredible birth story, and I wanted to share it with you. After a few irregular contractons, she had a cord prolapse at home. She wrote to me:

“This was a planned homebirth…we had called the midwife as soon as my water broke to have her come out (my water had never broke previous to the pushing stage before). Then when I stood to get up, I saw the cord. Feel free to post and link back to me, I thought it was a story you might be interested in hearing. Amazingly, when I went in for my postpartum visit with the OB who did the c-section, the first thing he said to me was, ‘You know, nothing would have been any different if you had planned a hospital birth. You still would have been at home when your water broke and the cord would still have prolapsed.’ I was amazed at how positive he was and how willing he was to admit this was not a ‘home birth’ issue. I think Apollo’s story is important for people to hear…being knowledgeable about that one issue (what to do in case of a cord prolapse) is what saved his life.”