Yesterday I was speaking with a private hospital midwife who was relating a wonderful birthing story. She was with a mum who had an ecstatic water birth and who was in heaven.
Mum had specified that a physiological third stage was exactly what she intended – and she was likely to have this with a respectful midwife who trusts birth.
Right up until the midwife turned her back to wrap baby and return bub to mum – when the OB stepped in and pulled on the cord (placenta still attached) and mum then went into a free fall of catastrophe – all hands on deck to stop the bleeding. This is one of many instances I have heard of – why do people feel the need to interfere?
It is NOT SAFE to . . .
How to not have this happen to you?
1 – Have baby with you the instant baby arrives and DO NOT LET ANYONE remove baby from your skin/breast – this is how women and all mammals clamp down the arterial flow – by the hormonal interplay that had meant all mammals do it in the wild and well . . .
2 – Ensure NO ONE pulls on the cord – it is not designed to be ripped out of you.
Just because it is a hospital worker – and a specialist to boot – is NO EXCUSE for unsafe behaviour.
Nature does not set us up to fail/die in birthing.
No homebirth midwife would be silly enough to do this as the risks of needing a theatre to stem the flow are too great.
WHAT DO YOU DO IF THERE IS A REAL NEED TO GET THE PLACENTA OUT?
1 – Baby on breast and suckling is how nature sorts this out.
2 – If mum has birthed/been delivered in theatre – what are they doing with baby in any other spot than to help her do third stage (on her breast) ? This is the only safe place for both of them to be – right up close and personal. Natural hormones take care of keeping mum alive and happy.
3 – An acupuncture spot to massage – (as in my book – as all of this is) SP 4 – slide your finger down the big toe edge of the foot from the toes till you get to where a bunion may form – and go over this joint – and then slowly retrace your path – come back towards the toe a little – where your finger falls into a depression in the bone – so on the leg side of that joint – is where you massage VERY firmly.
I have been in several births where just doing this has stopped the bleeding and detached the placenta. There IS NO NEED to be heavy handed and directly dangerous with a just birthed mum.
WHAT YOU CAN DO IF THERE IS A BLEED?
There is a point at the corner of the outer root of the big toe nail (Sp 1).
Another one of my patients (who happened to be an acupuncturist) was having her birthing centre birth not going as she had planned – and eventually instead of bleeding out she got her husband to grind his fingernail into the point on both toes and the bleeding MAGICALLY stopped. Whatever medically was happening was not fast enough and this was instant.
Often it takes very little – just not standard ‘medical’(crisis avoidance thinking) know-how – to make a great difference
ALSO – do not be a smoker as you are far more likely to bleed.
Please ensure that your state of nutrition is stunning – as it should be as you are actively growing another person.
At least a great multivitamin (Blackmores or anything from a health food shop or a naturopath) is great – but at least twice daily as the Vit B and C is not stored and needs t be a constant for optimal health. This also means eat and drink as you feel to in labour – there is NO evidence to say that it is not safe – unless of course you are being groomed for surgery . . ..and you really are only having a baby .. .