[Sweeper933]

So by now I've heard of some pretty rough deliveries (having pieces of scalp being torn off by vaccums for example) but we have a term baby right now who definitely had a rough start...

Mom is 16 (Dad is 14... don't even get me started on that one...). Mom is diabetic. MDs didn't want to do C-section on such a young Mom. So instead, they end-up using forceps, and literally pulling the baby out. The poor baby (who by the way is >10lbs) ended up with a nice chunk taken out of her cheek from the forceps, brachial plexus injury on her right side, and a broken left humerous! Seriously....

All of that just to not do a C-section (No I dont' know the specifics on why they didnt' do a section... that could be a whole thread in itself...)

Our Neo who attendend the delivery said that the OB had their hands so far up, that it looked more like a calf birthing ... geez.

Anybody else seen anything like this???

[elizabells]

If I typed what I said out loud when I read your post, they'd ban me in a heartbeat.

I've seen a U-shaped forceps mark on a face, but not a CHUNK taken out!!!

[preemieRNkate]

Oh I have seen some real doozies! I have a running list in my head of who I would want to deliver my future babies and who I definitely would not! How about in the OR when they ask for the vacuum during a c-section? Um, you're making the hole FOR the baby, make it big enough! Some poor babies with head bleeds as a result of vacuum deliveries, bad shoulder dystocias, the list goes on and on. Hope the baby makes a speedy recovery!

[Elvish]

Ah, yes. Some pretty bad ones I have seen. One of the worst was a kid whose head looked like ground hamburger meat from the VE.....had been vacuuumed x 40 min before they finally got her out. It was awful. Amazingly she had only a small cephalohematoma.

It really twerks me when I see these people trying to deliver a baby vaginally when they have absolutely now idea how to do it. I'm sure it could be done in many cases, but not with Mom lying flat on her back and a 1st-year delivering. Once we had two LGA kids (one 11lb, one 12lb), one with a broken clavicle, the other w/ a bad humerus break. Poor kiddos.

[dawngloves]

I've seen c/s where the OB is crawling into the mom's abdomen. My favorite is when they don't make the incision big enough and the baby gets stuck halfway and they are ripping apart the cavity to get the baby out.

[Jolie]

I cared for one baby who suffered severe facial injuries from forceps, including a corneal abrasion, and a torn lip. I thought the child was born with a cleft lip when I first saw it, but then learned that it was forceps damage. So sad!

[danissa]

Same the world over it seems, babies with forceps WOUNDS! babies who should have been delivered long before by C/S.., who have been in secondary apnoea. You just think...what the ??? Who is responsible for the injuries, seems at times no one puts their hands up. taking on the fractured lives is soul tearing though. Avoidable bad deliveries, thats the worst part of the job........

Hindsight is a great thing however.............

[rph3664]

Did the doctor do this because s/he has a thing about teenage mothers? I understand a lot of "girls who were sent away" had birth experiences like this but this is 2008!

There is a plethora of debate about unnecessary c-sections but in a KNOWN situation, it's the right thing to do.

[Sweeper933]

Originally Posted by rph3664

Did the doctor do this because s/he has a thing about teenage mothers? I understand a lot of "girls who were sent away" had birth experiences like this but this is 2008!

There is a plethora of debate about unnecessary c-sections but in a KNOWN situation, it's the right thing to do.

Like I said above - I'm not sure about all of the details concerning the delivery... I think part of the reason for the OB not wanting to do a C-section was because Mom was so young - didn't want to have to make her deliver all of her babies by c-section afterwards. However... was all of the trauma to the baby worth it?!??!?!

The baby is doing much better. She's been a horrible eater on top of everything (although I don't blame her...) She's starting to move some fingers / wrist on the brachial plexus injury arm, and she's moving some finger tips under the splint-like thing on her broken humerus arm. And the chunk taken out of her cheek from the forceps is also looking a lot better. I just feel bad because the only thing she can get for the pain of her broken arm is tylenol... doesn't seem to work enough for her.

[NICUandLearning]

I have seen some injuries but the injury that was one of the worst was a slice in thte back of the infant from a scaple with a c-section that required plastics to close the wound.