Blog Archives

The Christmas stillbirth “toll”

12/17/2015

I was watching the news last night and saw the launch of the “be safe for goodness sake” road safety over Christmas campaign. The police unfortunately expect 20 Australians to die on our roads over the Christmas period. The police spokesperson was urging people to keep safe because of how absolutely devastating it is to lose a family member so close to Christmas, effectively ruining the ability to celebrate Christmas, not only this year but in the years to come.
He was saying no one wants to lose a loved one so close to Christmas so “for goodness sake” do everything you can to reduce your risk of becoming a road toll statistic by avoiding mobile phone use, not drink driving and observing the speed limit.
I couldn’t help thinking as I watched this how awesome it would be if there was a similar “keep safe for goodness sake” in pregnancy campaign.
The messages could be quite similar. No one wants the devastation of losing a baby so close to Christmas so “for goodness sake” do everything within your power to reduce your risk by:
•Sleeping on your side: being aware of your body 24/7 including when settling to sleep, avoiding (as far as possible) sleeping on your back.
•Alert but not alarmed: it is okay to discuss concerns and ask questions of your care provider both during and between antenatal visits, trust your maternal instincts and act to protect your baby
•Feeling movements: being aware of who your baby is, how the baby is and immediately reporting any change
•Early expert advice: keep an eye on your own pregnancy and promptly report any concerns to your care provider.
So I hereby do my own launch of the campaign to keep your baby SAFE “for goodness sake” this Christmas.

0 Comments

Fetal movements and cold drinks: debunking the myths

12/16/2015

2 Comments

It is 11 days until Christmas and I am getting pretty excited about spending our first Christmas with our gorgeous new grandbaby. Tempered with that excitement though is the realisation that 66 Australian families will not get to do what I am so looking forward to, because in the next 11 days, 66 babies will be stillborn.
What can we do about it?
One of the biggest things to do is raise public awareness that stillbirth still happens. It isn’t something that sometimes “just happens” or that “we can’t do anything about”. Pregnant mums can actually take active and effective steps to keep their baby safe. One way to do this is to get to know their baby through fetal movement.
There are two big myths about fetal movement that I would like to debunk.
Myth 1: Babies move less close to birth because they run out of room
It is NOT normal for the baby to move less close to birth, the movements should be just as strong and just as often right up to the birth. In fact studies have shown over and over again that if the baby starts to move less, then this is a very ominous sign indeed. So mums who notice their baby moving less should immediately see their care provider, who should respond to her concerns by assessing the baby’s wellbeing.
Myth 2: If the baby is moving less a good way to perk it up is to drink a cold (sugary) drink
If you think about this for a minute, this myth actually makes no sense AND the Australian and New Zealand stillbirth alliance guidelines specifically say this is not evidence based information.
Let’s ask ourselves… Why would drinking a cold drink make the fetus move more? Perhaps…and it’s a big perhaps, when the cold water hits the mother’s stomach it causes her stomach to rumble and that noise wakes the baby up? Maybe, if you drink something sugary it causes a burst of glucose in the mother’s blood stream and the glucose will give the baby more energy? !! That makes slightly more sense BUT even IF either of these things did temporarily wake the baby up, why would anyone think that this means that the baby was now well?
As I said in my “enough is enough” blog below. Imagine that a mother of a toddler noticed that he was spending the day lying down on the sofa, she was concerned and rang her doctor and the doctor told her, “sit down with him, bang a drum next to him and give him a drink of green cordial, that should wake him up! Ring me back if you are still concerned”! Imagine what the coroner would say if that baby subsequently died. Yet this is essentially the advice that pregnant women are hearing from their family and friends as well as many care providers every day.
The really telling point here is this: Even IF doing this wakes the baby up and causes them to kick, it makes no sense that anyone would then think that everything was ok and that that baby’s change in behaviour didn’t warrant further investigation. Thinking back to our toddler, even if the drum woke him up or the green cordial made him get up and run around for a few minutes the underlying reason for his listless behaviour is still there and when the green cordial wears off he may still be quite sick!
So if you are currently pregnant and you want to keep your baby safe, immediately report any changes in your unborn baby’s behaviour to your care provider and don’t waste precious time drinking cold sugary drinks.
Hopefully this information is read and acted upon by the women who need to hear it to protect their unborn baby, so we can all enjoy Christmas with, rather than mourning for, our precious babies.

2 Comments

The Christmas stillbirth “toll”

Fetal movements and cold drinks: debunking the myths

Still Talking

Archives

Categories

﻿The Christmas stillbirth “toll”

﻿Fetal movements and cold drinks: debunking the myths

Still Talking

Archives

Categories

The Christmas stillbirth “toll”

Fetal movements and cold drinks: debunking the myths