At about 7 am, the midwife came and we listened to his heartbeat again, and again it was perfect, before, during and after a contraction...So what happened?
An hour later my midwife checked my dilation again and I was 5-6 cm, we listened for the heartbeat on the doppler and we couldn't find it. We tried to stay calm and went straight to the hospital, hoping that they would confirm with ultrasound that he was fine and was just so low in the pelvis that we couldn't get his heartbeat on the doppler at that point, but sadly, they confirmed what we quietly feared. He didn't have a heartbeat. Sometime in that hour, he had passed away.
Umbilical Cord Torsion. It is very rare, and is when the umbilical cord twists in on itself and forms a kink. It essencially cut off all blood supply and oxygen to him immediately.
The MDC takeaway?
- There are situations where being down the hall from the OR means the difference between life and death.
- There are situations where intermittent monitoring will miss what continuous monitoring would pick up.
- Intermittent monitoring is not "as safe as" continuous. It increases your baby's risk of brain injury and death.
