My sister in Surigao gave birth last Friday, unfortunately, the baby died in utero. Apparently, the baby suffered from umbilical cord strangulation .
She had ultrasound scan only once, 2 months ago. A month ago, the baby was noted to be in a breach position, which reversed a few weeks later. How the doctor came up to this conclusion without having an ultrasound scan, I wouldn't know. Also, supposing this was true, I should think that an ultrasound scan would be the logical thing to do, to check how the baby moved that quick. The cord around the neck would have been spotted and Caesarian operation would have been done straight away. But then again, I'm not a doctor and prenatal care in the Philippines, or at least in Surigao still depends on the pregnant woman whether she would like to see a midwife/doctor or not.
So what are the common causes of stillbirths? They could be
a. Placental abruption
b. chromosomal abnormalities
c. gestational growth problems
d. environmental factors
e. genetic defects
f. bacterial infections in the mother
But umbilical cord strangulation at full term?
I don't know. I'm still checking from the philippine medical council but their website doesn't say anything about procedures in prenatal care.
I mourn for the unnecessary loss of my sister's baby. I know that whatever we do now, there's nothing that can bring the baby back to life.
It's just a difficult thing to accept at the moment.
Tuesday 25 October 2005
Unnecessary loss
Posted by Soy at Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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3 comments:
Yes you're right. That's what irritates me about Filipinos--they just accept things as 'God's will'--even if it's obviously malpractice. Thank you very much for your thoughts. That's very nice of you.
I'm so sorry to hear this bad news. The doctor should have seen that beforehand, to think that he did an ultrasound just recently..it's 100% malpractice. I hope your sister's coping from this traumatizing experience..and yes, I'm fed up with that 'God's will' reasoning too..now that almost everything could be explained by science..
tho i have fears on my coming delivery, i know that i'll be in good hands here..hopefully..crossing my fingers.
Analyse: Thanks. I asked somebody at the hospital when I had my anomaly scan just yesterday about stillbirth due to cord strangulation and I was told that this is rare to almost impossible because it's normal for the cord to go around the neck of the baby. Besides, the baby doesn't breath through the nose but through the cord attached to its navel, so strangulation is almost impossible. Also, the cord couldn't have been tightened around the neck because of the buoyancy inside the uterus. I wonder how my sister's doctor made a conclusion of the cause of the death of the baby since there was no post-mortem done. It's really terrible.
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