a near miss.

a near miss – a near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage – but had the potential to do so. (from wikipeida of course!)

today we truly had a near miss at one of our deliveries.

we had a very sweet young mama come in and deliver today. she came to maternity almost complete and had probably labored alone most of the night. she is shy and timid and we hoped to support and encourage her through her labor.

all went amazingly well. i was grateful.

tara (one of the others who works with heartline) went to scoot the baby up a bit more onto moms tummy after delivery and then all of the sudden, said “oh, no!!” i looked and there was a loose cord and we had not cut the cord yet. it took me about a second to realize that meant that the cord to the baby would also have been bleeding. i immediately grabbed the baby and clamped with my fingers the umbilicus and the cord that was bleeding. wini (a nurse who works with heartline) immediately grabbed a clamp and we clamped the babies cord. all was fine. he bled minimally. that is a completely crazy thing, a cord avulsion. for no reason the cord basically snaps at a weak point leaving the baby to bleed unless you clamp the cord.

scary. that was a near miss.

i am super glad this mama delivered with us and not at home without a trained attendant as so many women here in haiti do.

safe places to deliver babies are really important.

while i was looking up information about cord avulsions i read this comment about the stage of labor between the baby and the placenta coming –

“This indeed is the unforgiving stage of labor, and in it there lurks more unheralded treachery than in both the other stages combined. The normal case can, within a minute, become abnormal and successful delivery can turn swiftly to disaster.”

our delivery could have turned into a disaster. or the cord could have broken in the weak place before delivery and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. if you prayed for our sweet mama today, your prayers were answered and she had a healthy beautiful baby boy. (with the cutest fat cheeks i have seen in a while!)

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