Saturday, January 28, 2012

Preparing For Emergency Childbirth

Many expecting parents worry that they won't make it to the hospital in time, and will deliver their baby alone at home or in the back of their car on the shoulder of the highway. While we all have plans for birth, sometimes birth takes an unexpected turn. Sometimes traffic is bad, the weather slows you down, a natural disaster strikes, or the hospital closes. When you give place somewhere other than where you planned, and without the professional help you were counting on, we usually hear this called "emergency" childbirth.

When prospective clients are interviewing me, one of the questions I'm often asked is "Have you ever delivered a baby? If things happened fast would you know what to do?"

I explain that while catching their baby is outside my scope of practice as a doula, I have done it before (under the supervision of a midwife), and I maintain current first aid & CPR skills so if it came right down to it, and there was no way around it, I would take off my doula hat, put on my "first aider" hat, and do the best I could for them.

The thing is, birth is normal. Healthy. Generally safe here in Canada. Even if you do find yourself unexpectedly giving birth without a dr/nurse/midwife at your side to help - - it's not likely an emergency.

The first thing to do is take a big breath and say "This isn't an emergency. I just need to stay calm and take things one step at a time." Despite the yelling and drama you see on tv, childbirth is a process that is designed to work. While there are exceptions to every rule, if the labouring woman has safety, privacy, and warmth, and her labour is unhindered, she & baby will be just fine in the VAST majority of cases. Keeping all that in mind....

The second thing to do, after you've taken your deep calming breath, is pull out this fabulous handout from the American College of Nurse Midwives. Follow the instructions there, and you'll be off to a good start.  The ACNM also offer this handout which is an expansion of the one above and includes information on how to deal with a few common complications of birth.

I recommend you read through the handouts sometime early in your third trimester. Gather the supplies. Put a print out of the pages with your birth supplies, and put it all somewhere that is both safe AND easily accessible.

"Emergency childbirth" doesn't have to be feared, if you've taken some time to prepare!

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