Friday, 12 October 2012

Down to earth with a bump (22) - A labour of love (6)

Fact: 16% of all births end up in a ventouse delivery

The baby's head was down far enough for the doctor to know what her next move would be: Assisted delivery in the form of ventouse. This was the last hope for our baby, prior to surgery. Simon and I were all too aware of how many midwives appeared to be in our room all of a sudden.

Simon tells me how the registrar attached the ventouse cap to the baby’s skull and then pulled. No, tugged. Get this. The doctor that delivered our baby, did so with one leg up on the bed to get herself a good purchase, literally yanking the ventouse with her entire body weight. But… What gets to me most of all when I revisit this part of the birth, is that all of that tremendous pressure was not just pulling on the ventouse. It was pulling on our baby’s head.

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