CASE STUDY 35
INTRAUTERINE DEATH
A 42 year old Para 1+2 (means that she has had 2 previous miscarriages) presents at 32 weeks gestation having felt non-specifically unwell for 24H. She has not felt the baby kicking over this time and when the midwife tries to perform a CTG she is unable to hear a heartbeat. You are called to see her....
INTRAUTERINE DEATH
A 42 year old Para 1+2 (means that she has had 2 previous miscarriages) presents at 32 weeks gestation having felt non-specifically unwell for 24H. She has not felt the baby kicking over this time and when the midwife tries to perform a CTG she is unable to hear a heartbeat. You are called to see her....
Up there is my case study tutorial I am presenting tomorrow. A tutorial which I stared at the entire weekend, having no feelings of empathy because it was literally just...a tutorial.
Today, a lady in her late 30s came in complaining of abdominal pain, thinking she was in labour, at 35 weeks gestation (only 3 weeks more to term)...but she wasn't in labour. Her baby had died in utero a few days ago.
It was the couple's first child.
To have the lady give birth like a normal delivery, with the pain like everyone else, but not to have the joy of having hear your own child cry and carry it in your arms...and having the husband look away to cry, makes you think back on how cruel life can be at times.
2 weeks of smiling over newborn babies, and it only took one to make me depressed.
Today, a lady in her late 30s came in complaining of abdominal pain, thinking she was in labour, at 35 weeks gestation (only 3 weeks more to term)...but she wasn't in labour. Her baby had died in utero a few days ago.
It was the couple's first child.
To have the lady give birth like a normal delivery, with the pain like everyone else, but not to have the joy of having hear your own child cry and carry it in your arms...and having the husband look away to cry, makes you think back on how cruel life can be at times.
2 weeks of smiling over newborn babies, and it only took one to make me depressed.
The grief is terrible, as is the endless feeling of missing someone you never knew.
1 comment:
a child shouldn't have to choose
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