About 30 weeks into her pregnancy she started having vaginal bleeding and her local midwife sent her out to the government hospital nearest their village. She was then referred by the government hospital to us because they do not have an obstetrician/gynecologist on staff right now. An ultrasound showed that she had a complete placenta previa, which is where the placenta is implanted right above the cervix, which blocks the exit of the baby when it is suppose to be born. This complication can cause both mom and baby to die very quickly if she goes into labor or starts to bleed.
After she was admitted to our hospital we found out she was contracting, so she was given medication to try and stop those contractions. She was also given a steroid injection to speed up the development of the baby, specifically his lungs, because if he was born then he would have been too early and most likely would have died. The bleeding slowed down, so for the next several weeks she laid in her bed in the ward on complete bedrest. Finally she reached 36 weeks (8 months) and we let her go a relative's house in a nearby town (her village would have been too far away and with the bad roads would have been a huge risk). But less than 24 hours later she started bleeding again and she was readmitted to the hospital. The decision was made to do a c-section.
So at 36 weeks and 2 days this little one was born. He weighs 2.5 kg (5 pounds 5 ounces) and after needing a little help with oxygen during transition, he is hanging out with mom in the ward. Because he is early he is having some problems with his temperature and with breastfeeding but overall he is doing great and will hopefully work through those issues quickly. Mom is doing well also, did not bleed too much during the surgery, and is now recovering.
This one will go down in the books as a life saved from a complication that could have taken both the mom (leaving two other kids without a mom) and baby. The system worked like planned. Just a few weeks after I arrived, we lost a baby just like this one. She had started bleeding a lot and the baby had passed away before she even got to us. The baby was perfect and almost at its due date. We did a c-section and she lived but it was a close call.
