breastfeeding gone wrong

Wow! I have never heard of such a thing.....I would not have thought of it. I have learned so many new things reading these posts!!

I'll be honest...I blame this on your PERCEPTOR.

Your perceptor didn't give the mother enough instruction...and that is ok when someone has just given birth...but you cannot give someone virtually no instruction and then walk out of the room when someone is breastfeeding a newborn.

The baby should be positioned where the mother CAN SEE the baby. She should have been taught what to look for...the lips are the first thing to turn blue...around the mouth...this is the first sign...she should have been told had she seen this to set up the baby and pat it's back like she was going to burp it, and make sure it's head was not down...a healthy baby should have been fine.

Be aware that sometimes these mothers are exhausted and really, really drugged up....there is no way I would hand any of them a baby without anyone else there to actively watch the feeding and leave.

Let it be a lesson of what NOT to do.

I agree with the others who say, this is probably an apneic epidsode (or choked up on some mucus?), which happens whether at the breast or not. Baby just happened to be at the breast at the time.

As moms who have nursed will attest to (think of nursing a baby who is stuffy with a cold), nursing babies (in regular nursing positions, obviously not if they are under a breast actually, literally being suffocated) will typically struggle/ try to turn their head/ get fussy & dis-attach themselves from the breast if they can't breathe - happily, they won't just sit there and suffocate as many moms are afraid of.

Sorry you went through this & thank goodness someone noticed in time!!!!

I agree with those saying it was apnea. YES a pendulous breast and sleepy mother can occlude an airway, but much more likely is the apneic episode scenario.

I once had a dad holding his baby as I was bustling aroung the room cleaning up after the delivery if the color was OK. It was not OK, it was blue. He was holding the baby perpendicular to his body, head in his hands, feet at his stomach, gazing at the baby's face, a nice bonding thing. However, he had flexed the infant's head so far foreward that he had cut off the airway. No one expects something to go wrong while a parent is actively engaged with the baby, but it can.

MD's do not respond the same way that nurses do to situations. If Mom is holding the infant, their nurse will be watching both of them. An OB may not necessarily be watching the baby. A Ped might have noticed. I once had a 30 week patient with spontaneous decelerations. Just out of nowhere, the FHR would drop to 60 for a couple of minuites. The perinatologist was in the room talking with the patient and her husband and the heart rate would drop and he didn't notice until I started turning the patient and doing the things you do when a deceleration happens. This happened several times. Listening to the heart rate was just not one of the things in his particular mind set. But I don't know one experienced L&D nurse who wouldn't notice an audible deceleration no matter how involved she was in doing something when it happened.

But I don't know one experienced L&D nurse who wouldn't notice an audible deceleration no matter how involved she was in doing something when it happened. So true, Nursenora!

I disagree with the statement that this couldn't have been a suffocation. It COULD have been.
This happened in a hospital that I worked in once. A mother was nursing her baby in the night and when the nurse went in to check and see if they needed any help, the mom had dozed off and the baby's head was under the large breast and was dead. Never responded to resuscitation. It was awful.
Like someone else mentioned, mothers are exhausted and may sleep harder than they normally would. They still have the right to feed their babies though. It's hard to monitor enough for safety without being overbearing or annoying to the mother. Plus, nurses don't have time to stay in the room with every mother for the duration of every feeding. It's just not possible.
Very scary situation.

A suffocation under a breast is waaaay different than a suffocation at a breast. Baby is not going to suffocate while breastfeeding. Once unlatched and maybe under a pendulous breast, the story changes some.

Scary all the way around. And agree - it's impossible to stay with every mom for the duration of every feed.