Fetal death after maternal death

oneillk1 · Apr 1, 2008

How long does it take for a fetus to die after the mother dies?

I know that from a critical care perspective, if the MAP is below 50 then we are looking at ischaemia. Ie Uterus, placenta. And that is not even taking into account the resistance from these

moosemadness · May 13, 2008

When doing a crash section on a mom that has died, it depends on alot of factors if the baby will/can survive. I have been fortunate enough not to have to deal w/ that situation. I did have a friend who lost her baby at 24 weeks due to a uterine infection, and they were both so sick. She is better now and has since had 2 other healthy babies.

rhondanruss · May 18, 2008

I am in Nursing 124/125 (OB) and my teacher just told us Wednesday that you have about 20 minutes after mom dies to save the baby, hope this helps!

mugwump · May 18, 2008

Not to go against your instructer but I think it is a lot less than 20 minutes. (I guess it depends on if CPR is being done) however the body will shunt blood away from the uterus since it is not a vital organ. At our hospital we code out mom for 4 minutes then prepare for a perimortem C-section "alive in five" We have actually had to do it at least once in the 8 years I've worked where I worked. (not fun in the least)

Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN · May 30, 2008

I was one of the babies who they did an emergency c section on. mom was bleeding out and i had a nucal cord. we both survived.

Kiwimid · Jun 2, 2008

wow!!! thats amazing!!! jess....

OzMW · Jun 3, 2008

Not to go against your instructer but I think it is a lot less than 20 minutes. (I guess it depends on if CPR is being done) however the body will shunt blood away from the uterus since it is not a vital organ. At our hospital we code out mom for 4 minutes then prepare for a perimortem C-section "alive in five" We have actually had to do it at least once in the 8 years I've worked where I worked. (not fun in the least)

Yer I thought it was 5 minutes...not just for the baby but for the mum to improve circulation with CPR. 20 minutes the kid would be long gone.Think about a kid during cord prolapse where there is partial cord occlusion - 20 mintues is pushing it it that situation. 20 minutes with circulation only from CPR, no hope.

Tippy-ta-ta · Sep 23, 2008

when I worked in ICU we had a very large obese patient who had gone into DKA and a coma. She coded twice right after admission in to the ICU. They intubated and called x-ray for the chest x-ray, x-ray called back wanting to know why noone told them the patient was preg. NO ONE KNEW, not even the womans husband. We called L&D to get FHT and she was in active labor, baby was full term. The ICU nurses and the L&D Nurses delivered the baby girl in the ICU while mom was intubated and in a coma. Baby girl was remarkably healthy and mom made a full recovery apparently she wasn't even aware that she was pregnant. She was in her early 40's.

justme1972 · Sep 23, 2008

They put the baby in an oven? What kind of oven?

This was a very common practice during home births where there wasn't a doctor for miles and miles, especially during the earlier part of the century when most people didn't have cars and a hospital, if you didn't have money, flat out, would kick you out to die.

They used to warm blankets in ovens, wrap the babies. The old iron ovens did have accurate temperature gauges on them.

Another trick was warming either stones or bricks, and putting them under the mattresses.

Elderly people would warm a brick, wrap it in a towel and put it at their feet at night to prevent frostbite.

My father used to tell me about stories of the water being so cold when he got up IN THE KITCHEN that he would have to break the ice on the end of the pump, when it was indoors. The house he had as a kid did not have modern plumbing.