Preparing for the Unexpected

When one works with pregnant women, it pays to prepare for birth outside the expected parameters. Every day you read about babies born in cars or as unplanned home births. Here is a recent example (I love it that the nine-year-old passed the paramedic a note that said, "Stay calm).

Ever since T$ had a client deliver in her own driveway, I've kept a few special items in my doula bag:

--bulb syringe (to clear mucus from a baby's airway if necessary)
--cord clamps (to, well, clamp the umbilical cord)
--sterile gloves
--"blue pads" (those really absorbant and plastic-lined pads that help control fluid spread)

These tools are backed up by a few emergency maneuvers that I hope I'll never have to use, but that I also hope work if I do have to use them:

--"Gaskin Maneuver" (to help free a stuck shoulder)
--"Summersaulting" a baby with a too-tight nuchal cord
--Flexing the head of a breech baby by letting it "dangle" (assuming it's anterior) just prior to delivering the head

I also keep the phone number of the local homebirth midwives' practice in my cell phone. In the event of a precipitous birth with complications, I would call 9-1-1 and then call them to talk me (or the birth mother's partner) through the delivery. I have to think they'd know more how to handle an emergent birth situation than the 9-1-1 dispatcher.

May these preparations remain unnecessary!