Most of the time a cord around baby’s neck will not cause problems. Keeping a close eye on heart tones is important and can help your midwife/doctor know if baby is handling labor/pushing well. Melissa sent in this wonderful picture that not only showed how simple it is to unwrap a cord, but also captured the amazing and raw moment of birthing and meeting your baby for the first time.
“I wanted to share this photo of myself and my fourth child, a boy. This was my second home birth and first water birth. It was such an empowering birth. I have never ever felt so in control, so loved, so supported in any of my births.
My best friend/Doula captured this shot. It says everything I was feeling at that time. All my emotions in one picture. I will never, ever forget that moment and I am so grateful to have it in a photo. I just wanted to share it with someone who values and loves birth as much as I do. I hope you can share in my love and enthusiasm over this incredible photo. Thank you for letting me share it!” ~Melissa
Picture captured by
Recommended Reading
Faith and Healing: A ‘Post Dates’ Home Birth After a Cesarean
2 Videos of Twins and Triplets Born Naturally!
I Am Wholly Here: The Healing Water Birth of Finn
My Final Birth Story- Veda’s Birth Story
Dorian’s Birth Story
My VBAC Story
Raw, Beautiful, Amazing Home Water Birth!
Olive’s Home Birth
Third Time’s the Charm: A Successful HBA2C
4 Comments
Victoria Gearity
Thank you for posting this. I’ll share it with my future clients.
I just attended a birth with an ob who responded to wrapped cord so very differently from this beautiful story. It pained me to witness not only the ob’s complete ignorance, but even more sadly, the hospital’s rigid policy that this perfectly healthy baby was not able to be held by his parents for 24 hrs as he was “observed”.
ashley
wow just hearing that they kept baby from his parents for 24 hrs makes my heart sink a little…and, not only was it 24 hrs, but his First 24 hrs of life…poor baby.. its because of nonsense like that, i’m going to become a Doula..
Wendy
I love how ‘normal’ this is and how easily it was handled… I was doula at a hosp birth last week and the cord was around the back of the baby’s neck, (much like this pic looks), and after the birth the Dr. just looped it over the baby like in this pic. No big deal! It always makes me sad when I hear about someone ‘having’ to have this or that done to baby ‘because’ the cord was around the baby’s neck… it’s a common thing and can be handled very peacefully, and easily.
Miranda
That’s crazy about the hospital birth. I had my 2nd with the cord wrapped around her neck and all my doc said was, “See what a healthy diet can do for a birth? Because your cord was so healthy it didn’t cause her any distress and you would have never known it was around her neck.” I’m not sure if there’s actually a correlation or not with diet but he said in his experience that healthier diets produce healthier cords and that other cords are “stringy” and seem to strangle the baby more. But after reading a lot of birth stories I’d think that sometimes the reason could just be a short cord too. 🙂