This baby is a Non-Conformist!
First, she decided to stay in the breech position during the entire pregnancy up thru 38 weeks. Only 3-4% of babies are breech at full term. That meant we had to go through the ECV process which was fortunately a success since the alternative would have been a C-section. The success rate of an ECV is only 58%. Then she never "dropped" as babies typically do. Only the forces of active labor moved her into the birth canal.
And she was borne with the amniotic sac still enclosing her - Connie's water never broke. Our Doula said she had been through almost 200 births, and had never seen that. Connie discovered that this type of birth is called being "born in the caul". The caul is the portion of the amniotic sac that encloses the baby, and a baby born in this manner is called a "caulbearer". This type of birth happens in only 1 of 1000 births. Legend has it that caulbearers have supernatural powers (we'll see).
Finally, we just had our pediatrician checkup. Emilia's weight is now 7 lbs 14 oz. At her last doctor visit 6 days ago, she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz (her birth weight was 7 lbs 2 oz). She gained 10 oz in 6 days! The doctor said the normal weight gain is 1/2-1 oz/day. Our little chugaluger is gaining weight at a rate of 1.7 oz/day. At that rate, she'll weigh 395 lbs by the time she's 10 ;^O
Showing posts with label ECV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ECV. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
This Baby Has Been ECV'd
Connie went into the hospital this morning to have the ECV (external cephalic version) done. This is how she looked before they started. (Sorry for the poor iPhone photos. I forgot to bring the real camera).
Then they stuck this in her arm, and things got more serious. They told us about all of the bad things that can happen during the procedure, and had us sign a waiver. Of course, they have to do this even if the risks are minuscule. Worst case scenario we envisioned was possibly needing an emergency C-section.
Connie said that the IV was really painful. The nurse told us that they use extra large needles for pregnant women since they may need a lot of blood if something goes wrong. So they use large diameter needles to be able to pump in a lot of blood fast. How comforting...
They then administered a drug that relaxes smooth muscle. The purpose was to get the uterus to relax so it would be easier to turn the baby. A sign that the drug is working is an elevated pulse rate. Here's a shot of the vitals monitor just before they attempted to turn the baby. Connie's pulse is 111, and the baby's heart rate is 132 (it fluctuated between ~125-155).
They then hooked up the ultrasound, re-confirmed the baby's position, established a plan for rotating the baby, and began pushing. They started by ensuring the baby was up high enough out of the pelvis. This didn't require much as this baby has liked to stay high in Connie's belly. Next was to dig in deep, and start rotating. The following picture is when the baby was about in the horizontal position (rotated 90 deg CCW from her starting head-up, vertical position), and Connie was focused on that new test equipment she'd like to get at work ;^) Connie said that this was the most painful portion of the process. The last 90 deg of rotation happened so fast that I missed it. Overall the procedure took only a few minutes and was successful on the first try!
A cool thing about these dudes at UCSD (Drs. Kelly and Robertson) is that they monitored the entire procedure continuously on the ultrasound (unlike the YouTube video we watched in which they only did a before and after). This was much better because they were able to see how the baby was being re-positioned, and how she was responding. At one point her heart rate slowed (seen visually on the ultrasound) so they adjusted Connie's position, and it came right back up. However, since it did depress for a short while, they monitored everything for an additional 2 hours after they were done.
Overall it was a huge success, and went as well as can be expected. They were impressed by how well Connie tolerated the process (which isn't real pleasant for Mom nor baby). Now we just hope that baby doesn't flip back. They felt that Connie's uterus tone should be sufficient to hold her in position so they didn't recommend using any kind of restraint.
Next step: Drop Baby Drop.
They then administered a drug that relaxes smooth muscle. The purpose was to get the uterus to relax so it would be easier to turn the baby. A sign that the drug is working is an elevated pulse rate. Here's a shot of the vitals monitor just before they attempted to turn the baby. Connie's pulse is 111, and the baby's heart rate is 132 (it fluctuated between ~125-155).
They then hooked up the ultrasound, re-confirmed the baby's position, established a plan for rotating the baby, and began pushing. They started by ensuring the baby was up high enough out of the pelvis. This didn't require much as this baby has liked to stay high in Connie's belly. Next was to dig in deep, and start rotating. The following picture is when the baby was about in the horizontal position (rotated 90 deg CCW from her starting head-up, vertical position), and Connie was focused on that new test equipment she'd like to get at work ;^) Connie said that this was the most painful portion of the process. The last 90 deg of rotation happened so fast that I missed it. Overall the procedure took only a few minutes and was successful on the first try!
A cool thing about these dudes at UCSD (Drs. Kelly and Robertson) is that they monitored the entire procedure continuously on the ultrasound (unlike the YouTube video we watched in which they only did a before and after). This was much better because they were able to see how the baby was being re-positioned, and how she was responding. At one point her heart rate slowed (seen visually on the ultrasound) so they adjusted Connie's position, and it came right back up. However, since it did depress for a short while, they monitored everything for an additional 2 hours after they were done.
Overall it was a huge success, and went as well as can be expected. They were impressed by how well Connie tolerated the process (which isn't real pleasant for Mom nor baby). Now we just hope that baby doesn't flip back. They felt that Connie's uterus tone should be sufficient to hold her in position so they didn't recommend using any kind of restraint.
Next step: Drop Baby Drop.
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