Babies cut during c-sections?

[rbytsdy]

I'd really love to go into L&D nursing. I have a friend who is a NICU nurse but floats to L&D when needed. She was telling me that she was a c-section the other day where the baby's head was cut (not serious but still a cut). She felt so bad because the baby was screaming. No one told the parents who were looking so dazed at their screaming baby after all the commotion of getting sent in for a c-section. She told me it's not that uncommon. I was wondering what everyone's else's experiences were. Maybe I'd be better off thinking about the post partum units.... for some reason, the thought of that really bothers me. Should she have been the one to tell the parents?

[mom and nurse]

Whoa - this thread makes me happy my childbearing years are behind me... :) Seriously. I always have had a lot of respect for those of you who work OB-GYN nursing. As a student I loved it...... But it was good that they had a nurse come in to speak to us (apart from the flowers and well wishing for parents of newborns) to let us know that not all the outcomes are happy ones.

Still. As a nurse who works with a mostly elderly population. It must be wonderful to welcome folks into the world instead of just being there with them a few years or days before they say goodbye.

[MamaTheNurse, BSN, RN]

in 4 years of L&D, I never saw a baby cut during a c-sec but I had my hand inside a patient's uterus keeping a prolapsed cord and a determined 26 weeker from sliding out (way long story........) and I was worried that my fingers had the possibility of being sliced before I could get them out......(didn't happen)

I saw some really good "head hickies" from vacuum extractors and saw a cut on the top of a baby's head from one of those old style suckers that had the metal cups......

as for forceps, bah......

I personally have 38 year old dents on both sides of my head from a forceps delivery - it did some muscle (but no nerve) damage and I had to have a lazy eye on that side repaired (still gets slightly wonky when I'm really tired - that's my cue to my husband that we've been out too late and need to get home.......:monkeydance:

[johj]

I have worked in a L & D for almost twenty years. I have yet to see a cut on the newborn from a C/S but I have seen red marks or bruises. If it is a difficult delivery of the baby, the OB/GYN's hands can scratch or bruise a part of the newborns body. But this is also rare. It usually goes away in a couple of days.

[tinyscrafts]

I have read (I think on some CIMS publication) that cuts happen about 4% of the time, mostly those malpostitioned kids.

We have a local baby that was recently cut ear to ear along the back of the head. and my friends' baby was too, right above the eye (the doc had the nerve to say the baby scratched it'self- Come on!. I wish the docs would just slow down. Some seem to be competeing to be fast

[lovemyjob]

Vacuums and forceps are terrifying. Got a kid in from an outlying who had "multiple pop-offs"...had some brain bleeds and a head that looked like a waterbed....poor child. Couldnt give him anyhting for pain b/c it would mask the signs of seizures. Poor thing just cried and cried (which prob made it hurt worse!)

[Kiwi Ali]

My now 19 yr old was born by caesar for foetal distress and they cut her ear, she had three stitches, can hardly see the scar today.

[nurse_atnite]

As many of the posters have stated.....done L&D for years and only seen cut and nicks several times......nothing serious. The worst was a cut to the lip....direct OP......no stitches and healed by the time the family left the unit. Guess it happens sometimes:yeahthat: