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Understanding Stillbirth

© Mischele Lewis

This topic really touches close to home. I had a relative and a friend that had to deal with stillbirth. Its heart wrenching and effects everyone around them. Truly devastating. Due to modern medical monitoring systems and technology, stillbiths are slowly declining, but unfortunatly not extinct. The main causes of still birth are placental abruption, placental flailure, cord prolapse and the cord wrapping around the baby in utero.

Placental abruption, as stated in previous articles, An emergent third trimester complication that results from the hemorrhage and accumulation of blood between the placenta and the wall of the uterus. This inevitably interferes with fetal oxygenation and if not caught in time, fetal demise. It often results with the placenta actually removing itself from the wall of the uterus. If caught in time an infant can survive it only deliverable by c-section.

With placental failure is when, mostly due to an abnormality, fails during pregnancy. And late in pregnancy can cause the baby to die before birth and sometimes during birth. This is incredibly rare to stillbirth in modern days because mothers are monitored frequently during labor if not continually and any severe problems are caught. Or in the case of twins, there is a "twin-twin transfusion" syndrome in which a vascular anasomosis between the two fetal circulations leads to diminished blood flow to one twin (the "donor") and increased blood flow to the other twin (the "recipient"). The donor may die for lack of blood, or the recipient may die from congestive heart failure.

Cord prolapse is when, during labor, the umbilical cord comes out ahead of the baby and when the baby drops down toward the birth canal, it will pinch the cord shut, thus stopping oxygen flow to othe fetus, thus resulting in demise.

Little fetuses are incredibly mobile in the womb, as any mother will tell you. Sometimes they will get caught in the umbilical cord during its acrobatics. And in rare instances the cord can be pinched or even knotted (mostly with unordinarily long cords) cutting or limiting oxygen and nutrients to the baby.

No matter how or why a baby dies, the familes must deal with incredible grief and pain. Most times, these defects or severe instances can be caught and the baby saved in time. In some cases, its not.

The emotional impact will be covered in my next article in December from the prespective of a close personal friend of mine and the ongoing battle she deals with every day from the still birth of her son.

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