Cord Prolapse Birth Story - Addie is here!

Ive been more of a lurker than a poster but still wanted to share our birth story. Adelynn Michele was born on May 10th at 3:26am weighing in at 7lbs 14oz and 20.5inches long.

 At my 40 week appointment (May 9th) my blood pressure was high for the second week in a row. I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced so they sent me to the hospital for a possible induction but once we got to the hospital, my blood pressure returned to normal. I asked them to strip my membranes and then we went home.

About 3 hours later, I got up to go to dinner (a pick me up) and felt wet. It wasn't a huge gush but wasn't a trickle so I didn't really know if it was my water breaking or not since they say you'll have more discharge after stripping. So I waited it out and within an hour we definitely knew it was my water breaking.  I had been contracting all day (but nothing painful or regular).  The fluid was definitely green so we knew that meant meconium. I called my doctor and he told me to go ahead and come into the hospital - he almost told me to go walk awhile to hopefully start contracting more but since I had meconium he wanted to monitor me (a decision that would save my little girl).

We got to the hospital (after a TON and I mean a TON of leaking) and got settled in.  They wanted to wait before giving me any pitocin to hopefully let my body go into labor on its own.  I was still only 2cm dilated and barely contracting so we settled in for the night.  I decided that I wanted to go ahead and sleep while I could.

Around 3:15 am (got to the hospital at 11:30pm) I had to pee so I asked my mom to help me (i was hooked up to everything at this point).  While getting up I felt a pop and another gush of fluid.  I got to the bathroom and did my thing and then while wiping, I felt something hanging out from my v. At this point, we were thinking it was the bag of waters (because the nurse earlier told us I still had some left to break). My mom went and called the nurse and she came in to see what was going on. She was on the other side of the room putting on gloves and said it was probably the bag of waters and that it should be mucousy....I replied that "No, this is very hard" and she immediately came over to check it out.

 Once she saw what was going on (I'm still on the toilet here) she looked at me and said "Kristen go lay down now." I honestly didn't really think anything of it...she went into the hallway and then came back in and started laying me down. She said "you are going to have an Emergency C section. Its the babies cord and we need to get her out now."  (later my mom told me she heard the nurse yell into the hallway "I think I have a cord - code green" and immediately her stomach sunk.

The nurse then explained that she was going to have to manually hold the baby off the cord.  She had to manually dilate me ( I was still only 2 cm) and reach her hand into me to get the baby off the cord. Immediately there were a million people in my room and we were immediately wheeling out into the hallway.

There I was being rushed down the hallway, with my nurse on top of me with her hands inside of me, with about 20 people around my bed literally running down the hallway.  I was honestly so focused on the pain that "what could happen" wasn't really going through my mind - which I am so beyond thankful for.

They informed me that my doctor was at home but the head of the OB department was there and he was going to perform my surgery.

We get to the OR and they immediately cut off my bra and start prepping me for surgery and inserting a catheter - at this point I've had no pain meds.  The last thing I remember is asking my nurse (who was still holding the baby off the cord) if she was going to be okay. She assured me they would do everything they could and then I hear the doctor yelling to put me out.

The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery with my husband shoving a camera at me with pictures of our little girl.  I was obviously highly medicated at this point but I really didn't know what was going on. I remember being wheeled to my room (where my entire family was) and was still in shock.  They hand me my daughter and it all felt like a dream. Now that could be the medication talking or the fact that it all happened so fast.

I immediately asked them to lower my pain meds so I could function and finally started coming back to life.  Because they had to give me general anesthesia, I didnt get to hold her until about 2 hours after she was born.

From when they found the cord to when she was delivered was 8 minutes long. 8 minutes. I honestly didn't realize how quickly they could do a surgery like that.  My nurse held the baby off the cord until her hand met the surgeons hands.  She saved my little girls life, they all did - the whole staff. They were so quick to act - I can't say thank you enough.

Later, my doctor informed me that if I hadn't been at the hospital - that my little girl most likely would not have made it.  So thank goodness for that meconium!!

I remember in my birthing class them talking about cord prolapses but how rare it was. They were basically like heres what you do in this situation - but dont worry it wont happen to you. Not only is it so rare, it normally happens when someone is fully dilated - but I was BARELY dilated. Its all so crazy to think about.  My doctor told me he hadn't seen a cord prolapse in a decade. Lucky me right.

I feel very conflicted about what happened to me. I feel like my entire delivery experience got taken from me. I never had that first sight emotional overload and neither did my husband. Neither one of us got to see her born...I feel like the stork dropped her off.  I wasn't even really in labor. But I also feel extremely extremely lucky with the outcome - not everyone is so lucky. Her APGAR scores were both 9s and she didn't even have to go to the special care nursery.

It was a very emotional delivery - especially for my mom and husband who were left in the room while I was wheeled away in such a grave situation. Especially for my father who was flying from the house praying that we would both be alright.

I am truely blessed to have her here.  About 3 weeks before she was born, my husband lost his mother to cancer and I believe without a doubt that she was there watching over us.  My little girl is named after her and I can't imagine a more fitting ending.

So she came here with a bang - wanted to make a grand entrance!

She's almost 4 weeks old now - but with the recovery, I've just now gotten to post this. Here's her newborn pic and one from recently