Child Death - Could It Have Been Prevented?

We are a couple and we lost our child less 24 hours after birth.

What happened:
1. Visits to the government hospital during the first 5 months reveals that the baby is growing fast (could be twins).
2. 6 Ultra Sound Scan results from 3 different practitoners reveals that there is one baby girl and its growing very fast.
3. Expected Delivery Date = 19/11/2004.
4. 11/11/2004 - Watery discharge is observed. Private Gynacologist tells us that the baby may come anytime. Government Hospital says everything is OK and that we go home and wait for labour.
5. 24/11/2004 at 2am, labour begins and the expecting mom is taken to the hospital where she is admitted.
6. 24/11/2004 around 4pm watres break. I ask for the options to give birth by operation but told NO.
7. 25/11/2004 at 5am, I am given labour inducing chemicals while I'm already in labour.
8. I continue to be in labour pains untill 5pm (25/11/2004) when the operation is finally perfomed.
9. A 4.2kg baby girl is delivered and my sister saw her at 7pm.
10. 26/11/04 at 8am, I am told that the baby drank amniotic fluid and its making her very sick but she has been given some injection to stabilize her.
11. 26/11/04 at 9am the baby passes away and I only get to see her after her death.

I am still is pains from the operation and my baby's loss is killing me. Could this have been prevented? Please help us, we will be getting the doctor's report next week and we would like to have some information as to what could have been done before we recieve the report.

Thanx.
goitseturk.

[Christie2004]

First I offer my condolences for your loss.  There is very little that is more tragic than the unexpected death of a child.

I am guessing you are from a country outside the US, so it is a bit difficult to guess what level of care your daughter received.

It sounds as though you had adequate prenatal care with many ultrasounds during the pregnancy, that showed the baby was larger than expected.  This is quite common.

You were examined 11/11/2004 for a complaint of watery discharge and seen at a Goverment hospital where it was determined the water had not broken and you were advised to go home and wait for labor.  This is appropriate care, as long as you were actually examined by a doctor to determine if the water had broken or not.

Nov 24, 2004 early labor began and you were admitted to the hospital.  At 4pm the water broke.  Here you do not state whether the water was clear or a dark green color.  A dark green color signifies "meconium" (the baby's first bowel movement).  A passage of meconium is common, but can sometimes be a sign of a baby experiencing some difficulties.  You ask for a Cesarean (operative birth).  Appropriate care here would NOT be an operative birth, as long as the baby and mother were proven on the monitor to be tolerating labor appropriately.  An operative birth should only be done if there is a CLEAR MEDICAL NEED for it.  Not just because the mother is tired or worried.

The next morning you were given a chemical to help make the labor pains stronger.  This is often done if labor has been slow or the contractions not effective.  This is appropriate care.  Some doctors would have begun this sooner rather than wait 12 hours after the water breaking.

At 5 pm it was decided that an operative delivery was indicated.  Again, you do not say if it was because the labor was not progressing, if the mother had a fever, or if the baby was showing signs of trouble.  The baby was quite large.

The baby did not drink the amniotic fluid as you may have been told or understood.  It sounds like the baby INHALED the amniotic fluid, or breathed it in.  It also sounds like there WAS meconium in the fluid, to make the baby so ill.  I do not know what injection your baby was given.  Babies that are so ill after inhaling meconium fluid are usually put on a breathing machine in the intensive care unit. These babies are critically ill and many die no matter what care is given.

It appears as though your baby passed away very soon after the "injection".


I can only say without some furthur information I could not offer a guess as to whether the care given was appropriate.  The prenatal care certainly was very good.  Was a fetal monitor (straps on the mothers stomach or wires inserted into the mother) used during labor?  Was the water clear or green colored? Did the mother have a fever?  Was the baby put on a special breathing machine when she was so sick?  Was the baby in intensive care?

I am so sorry for your loss, and will be glad to try to answer your question furthur if you provide more information.  

Bless you and may your pain ease as the days go on.

[carolyn55806]

I am so sorry for your loss. You are in my thoughts.

'There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still'
                                      ---Corrie Ten Boom